EDUCATED MEN AND WOMEN
On Commencement day, Thursday, June 7, Harvard conferred 6,871 degrees and 138 certificates. The College granted 1,694 of these, 71 summa cum laude.
Mother Nature, the ultimate female scientist (as one participant called her), laid on forgiving weather—crisp—for the throng jammed into Tercentenary Theatre for the formal exercises in the morning and the multitude that returned that afternoon to hear the address of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. (The day before, also fair, had drawn its own huge crowd to listen to former U.S. president Bill Clinton speak at Class Day.)
Commencement caller Frederick Abernathy, McKay professor of mechanical engineering and Lawrence professor of engineering, told the celebrants milling in the Old Yard before the procession Thursday morning, “My responsibility is to engineer with dignity and good humor your orderly march into Tercentenary Theatre.” When his charges failed to form up smartly, he observed, “Good weather is not good for Commencement,” due to its relaxing effects. He appealed for discipline, declaring stentorianly, “President Bok is here, anxiously looking forward to the end of this event!”
WOOKIEES
The Latin Oration, which can always be counted on to raise a few laughs, is one of three traditional student “parts” delivered during the formal Commencement exercises. This year’s offering, by Charles J. McNamara '07, of Lowell House and Grayling, Michigan, entitled "Iohannes Harvard, Eques Iediensis," or "John Harvard, Jedi Knight," had a Star Wars theme. Names such as “Chewbacca” jumped out of the Latin in a startling way—and, in that case, drew an answering Wookiee growl from members of the audience.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
WARRIORS
Eleven seniors took oaths and received their first salutes at the ROTC commissioning ceremony on June 6. Lawrence H. Summers spoke at the event in each of his years as president, but President Derek Bok did not attend. The guest speaker was Stephen P. Rosen, Kaneb professor of national security and military affairs, director of the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard College Professor, and master of Winthrop House. “Four years ago,” he said, “Harvard chose you, and four years ago, you chose….the life of a warrior. Harvard honors public service, but is uneasy with national military service, because Harvard is uneasy with war, and with warriors, and increasingly sees itself as an international university, not simply an American university.
“We all wish to avoid war, with all our hearts…,” Rosen continued. “And we welcome students and faculty from around the world. But the United States is our country. Without the United States, there would be no Harvard, and we should never forget that. And our country is still at war, and so I salute your courage, your commitment to national service, and the…sacrifices you have made and will make.”
Photograph by Jim Harrison
FOUR MINUTES TO REMEMBER
An unprecedented approach to a reunion panel led to an especially engaging offering by the class of 1972, “My Favorite Four Minutes.” Each of the five panelists chose a four-minute scene from a movie that came out during their years in college. These excerpts were shown to the audience, and after each one the classmate who chose it revealed why it stuck in memory. Thus, after revisiting “Hot Lips” Houlihan in the shower in M*A*S*H, panelist Timothy W.H. Peltason ’72, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, discussed antiauthoritarianism and “mean-spirited misogyny.”
Photograph by Stu Rosner
PRIZEWINNERS
The Phi Beta Kappa scholars honored three members of the faculty with teaching prizes: David A. Evans, Lawrence professor of chemistry; Anne Harrington, professor of the history of science and Harvard College Professor; and poetry critic Helen Vendler, Porter University Professor. The senior class bestowed the two Ames Awards, for “selfless, heroic, and inspiring leadership,” on classmates Rajan Sonik, of Adams House and Sacramento, California, and Rabia Mir, of Pforzheimer House and Karachi, Pakistan. The Radcliffe Institute gave two Fay Prizes, for outstanding scholarly work, to Rowan W. Dorin ’07, of Adams House and Edmonton, Alberta, for findings about the development of trade and trading networks in the medieval Adriatic Sea, and to Emily K. Vasiliauskas ’07, of Lowell House and Penhook, Virginia, for her analyses of German poet Paul Clan’s work.
Photograph by Jim Harrison
TERM LIMITS?
Introducing President Derek Bok, who spoke on Commencement afternoon, Paul J. Finnegan ’75, M.B.A. ’82, of Evanston, Illinois, outgoing president of the Harvard Alumni Association, asserted that Bok’s second tenure was “the shortest presidency on record, but it has seen no shortage of accomplishments.”
“Derek did well to respond by invoking Nathaniel Eaton, whose term lasted just one year, from August 1638 to August 1639,” notes John T. Bethell ’54, author of Harvard Observed and a contributing editor of this magazine. “So he has tied that record (though purists might note that Eaton held the title of master, not president). However, the shortest term as acting president would seem to have been that of Andrew Preston Peabody, who stepped in when Thomas Hill resigned in September 1868. Charles W. Eliot was elected president in May 1869, and even though he would have needed some time to wind up his responsibilities at MIT, he almost certainly would have been on the job before the 1869-70 academic year started. I think Peabody beats Bok by at least a few weeks.”