Brevia

College Change

Harvard College dean Benedict H. Gross announced in mid July that Patricia O’Brien, deputy dean for the past two years and co-master of Currier House, would take a personal leave of absence from her University Hall responsibilities beginning August 1. O’Brien had overseen College administration generally, and initiatives on student life and advising, while Gross has focused on revising the undergraduate curriculum.


Eating Opportunities

As they toil away in Lamont Library this autumn, students will be able to satisfy their nonintellectual hungers at an on-premises café, scheduled to open in October in the former reference room; reference services are being relocated within the building. To ensure adequate hydration between meals, students will also have a new coffee bar in the renovated Hilles Library, and, by the beginning of spring term, the “Queen’s Head” pub in Loker Commons.

 

Changing of the Guard

The transition from Lawrence H. Summers to Derek Bok has occasioned the first cyberspace change of administrations in Harvard history. Visitors to the president’s homepage (www.president.harvard.edu) are now greeted with a new visage, message, and signature. A link connects readers to archived on-line records of the Summers administration.


HCF and HAA

Charles W. Cardillo
Jon Chase / Harvard News Office

Charles W. Cardillo ’91 became executive director of the Harvard College Fund effective July 1, succeeding Suzanne Battit. He had been deputy executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association, where he had overseen University-wide matters. His successor in the latter capacity at the HAA is Philip Lovejoy, who had been associate director for alumni education.


Nota Bene

Carolyn Abbate Stuart M. Shieber
Jon Chase / Harvard News Office Jon Chase / Harvard News Office

Fellows in many fields. The 2006-2007 Radcliffe Institute fellows include a baker’s dozen of Harvard faculty members and a∞liates, ranging from Peabody professor of music Carolyn Abbate and professor of sociology Frank Dobbin to professor of English and American literature and language Leah Price and Welch professor of computer science Stuart M. Shieber. The complete list appears on the institute’s website, www.radcliffe.edu.

Donald Hall
Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin


Principal poet. The nation’s fourteenth poet laureate, appointed by the Librarian of Congress in June, is Donald Hall ’51, Jf ’57.


Jerome Lyle Rappaport
Jerome Lyle Rappaport Charitable Foundation

Securing government studies. The family and foundation of Jerome Lyle Rappaport ’47, LL.B. ’49, M.P.A. ’63, have given $12.35 million to endow the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, a research and training center based at the Kennedy School of Gov-ernment. The gift brings to more than $15 million their total support for the institute, which provides fellowships and training grants and convenes conferences on regional issues. A recent study examined the relationship between land-use regulations and high housing costs.

Howard Georgi
Kris Snibbe / Harvard News Office
Mary Jo Bane
Courtesy of Mary Jo Bane
 


Miscellany. Professor of medicine Norman Letvin, chief of viral pathogenesis at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, leads a research group awarded $18 million by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of a global initiative to develop an HIV vaccine.…The Seneca, an all-women undergraduate social club, has acquired a house at 15 Mount Auburn Street to use as its social and operating headquarters.… Mallinckrodt professor of physics Howard Georgi, master of Leverett House, has been awarded the Pomeranchuk Prize for outstanding achievements in theoretical physics.…Bradshaw professor of public policy and management Mary Jo Bane is the new academic dean of the Kennedy School; she succeeds Belfer professor of international affairs Stephen M. Walt.… Kaavya Viswanathan ’08, embroiled in a plagariasm controversy over a novel last spring, was appointed a freshman peer adviser before that news broke; she will apparently serve in a capacity not involving direct advising.

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