Yesterday's News

 1935

The Business School announces 10 new courses on the business aspects of public administration for students who wish to prepare themselves for public service.  

 

 1950

The Massachusetts Legislature again considers a bill to investigate Communist sympathizers on college campuses. President Conant assures state lawmakers that Harvard is anti-Communist and has nothing to hide; he deems the investigation unnecessary because it “is likely to expose loyal citizens to unfair insinuations and thus to cause serious injustice.” 

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Dunster House residents lament their reputation as the “neglected child of Harvard,” assuring the Bulletin that they are no farther from the Yard than some other Houses, though they do “lie a goodly distance away from the pinball machines and hamburger heavens of Harvard Square.” 

 

 1960

The Admissions Office blanches at the prospect of 5,000 applicants to the class of ’64 as the “wartime ‘baby bulge’ [appears] a year ahead of schedule.” [Applications for the class of 2013 hit 29,112.] 

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The first women to complete a formal WHRB comp begin their stints on the air. 

 

 1965

The Data and Mailing Services, a computer facility for handling biographical and statistical data on 161,000 alumni, faculty and staff members, and students, has opened, compressing information once stored on many separate stencils onto 16,800 feet of magnetic tape.  

 

 1970

In his annual report, President Nathan M. Pusey laments “a dismal year,” plagued by student uprisings of “would-be revolutionaries” as well as financial constraints; for the first time in many years, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences runs a deficit, and federal support to Harvard decreases by $200,000. 

 

 1980

President Derek C. Bok calls student careerism “a passing phase,” predicting “a leveling in the number of future applicants to Harvard—though still far more than there are places available—and less anxiety over becoming a doctor or lawyer.”