The Corporation Reconfigured
The two longest-serving members of the Harvard Corporation, the University’s senior governing board, have announced that they will conclude their service at the end of the academic year. Both Robert D. Reischauer ’63 (top left), senior fellow since mid 2010, and Robert E. Rubin ’60, LL.D. ’01 (bottom left), were elected in 2002. Their departures represent the final step in implementing the governance reforms initiated in 2009, as term limits—the presumption that fellows would serve one or two six-year terms—were adopted. Attorney William F. Lee ’72 succeeds Reischauer as senior fellow (read a full report).
Nobelists
In October, Richards professor of chemistry emeritus Martin Karplus ’51 shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing models of large molecules, like proteins (see our report on the science involved). And alumnus James E. Rothman, Ph.D. ’76, now Wallace professor of biomedical sciences at Yale, where he chairs the department of cell biology and is founding director of a nanobiology institute, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (read more about his research).
Rhodes Sextet, Solo Marshall
Five seniors and a recent graduate have won Rhodes Scholarships for study at Oxford University this fall. The undergraduates are Elizabeth H. Byrne, a concentrator in human developmental and regenerative biology; Alexander J. Diaz (psychology); Aurora C. Griffin (classics); Andrew S. Lea (history and science); and Paolo P. Singer (economics). Katherine E. Warren ’13 concentrated in anthropology. Harvard’s newest Marshall Scholar, Brandon Liu ’14 (computer science), will attend the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and Cambridge University.
Duke Derivative?
Organized efforts to market the Harvard men’s basketball team to student fans (preseason participatory “Crimson madness” events at Lavietes, for example) have now spawned “Crimson Crazies” T shirts—derivative, surely, of Duke’s celebrated “Cameron Crazies,” named for that team’s storied arena. Harvard coach Tommy Amaker played for and was assistant and associate head coach of the Blue Devils, so he knows his crazies. In light of the other Duke tradition, Krzyzewskiville (the undergraduate queue for games, named after Coach K.), is a knock-off Amaker’s Army next?
University Professorship
Historian of music Carolyn Abbate, coauthor of the recent A History of Opera: The Last Four Hundred Years, has been appointed Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard’s highest faculty honor. She succeeds Stanley Hoffmann, the distinguished historian and scholar of international relations, who retired this past June (see a profile, “Le Professeur,” July-August 2007, page 32). Abbate joined the faculty in 2005 as Peabody professor of music, but then moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. She rejoined the faculty in 2013.
Financial-aid Fallout
As The Harvard Campaign pursues $1 billion or more to undergird financial aid, budget pressures are forcing other institutions to cut back on pre-recession aid commitments. Cornell from 2009 through 2012 charged parents nothing where family incomes were less than $75,000 (and limited aid-package loans to $3,000 for incomes up to $120,000); it reduced that zero-cost ceiling to $60,000 this academic year (and raised the loan amount to $5,000 for families with incomes from $75,000 to $120,000). The University of Virginia has trimmed its Access UVa program, begun in 2004, which provided full scholarships for students from families with incomes up to $47,000. The cost has risen from $11.5 million to $40.2 million through 2012, so the university has now phased in a loan component: up to $28,000 during a student’s four years.
Nine-figure Fundraising
Even as Harvard sets a record campaign goal, other schools continue to pursue and receive large gifts. The University of Michigan announced a $4-billion fund drive, the largest by a public institution. Real-estate developer Stephen M. Ross, who owns the Miami Dolphins, gave Michigan, his alma mater, $200 million for the business school and athletics, raising his total gifts to $313 million; he chairs the campaign.…New York University launched an effort to raise $1 billion for financial aid.…Phil Knight, co-founder and chairman of Nike, Inc.—an alumnus of the University of Oregon and Stanford Graduate School of Business (whose new campus was funded with his naming gift)—and Penny Knight offered a $500-million challenge to Oregon Health and Science University, to stimulate cancer-research funding, bringing their support for OHSU to $725 million.…Weill Cornell Medical College received a campaign-kickoff gift of $100 million from Sanford I. Weill and Joan Weill; their gifts to the college and university total more than $600 million.…Former Boston developer and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers Frank McCourt gave Georgetown, his alma mater, $100 million to create a public-policy school.…Credit-card executive T. Denny Sanford gave the University of California at San Diego $100 million for stem-cell research, atop an earlier $30-million gift.
Winthrop Awaits
Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael D. Smith has announced that Winthrop House will be the next undergraduate residence renovated, from June 2016 to the start of the fall semester in the following year. Quincy’s Stone Hall, the first project undertaken, welcomed students this past semester; Leverett’s McKinlock Hall is under construction; and Dunster, the first House scheduled to be entirely renovated, will be vacated for the work after Commencement this May.
Nota Bene
Medical membership. Seven professors were among the 70 members newly elected to the Institute of Medicine in October: Katrina A. Armstong, Jackson professor of clinical medicine; Judy E. Garber, professor of medicine; Ashish K. Jha, professor of health policy and management and associate professor of medicine; Michelle M. Mello, professor of law and public health; David J. Mooney, Pinkas Family professor of bioengineering; Mark A. Schuster, Berenberg professor of pediatrics; and Christoper A. Walsh, Bullard professor of pediatrics and neurology.
Centered on medicine. Harvard Medical School has established a new academic department of neurosurgery, recognizing it as a specialty distinct from general surgery. It is led by Robert Martuza, Sweet professor of neuroscience and chief of neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.…Separately, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s Hospital, and the Broad Institute established a joint center for cancer precision medicine, aimed at personal therapies for patients with advanced cancers.
Upping the online ante. Coursera, the for-profit online learning company, announced a $20-million round of venture-capital financing, bringing the total of such funding since mid 2013 to $63 million. HarvardX, the University’s edX online organization, has announced AlumniX, a repackaging of online course content for individual and alumni club use.
Rink renamed. Harvard Athletics announced that Bright Hockey Center has been renamed Bright-Landry Hockey Center in recognition of gifts from the late C. Kevin Landry ’66 and his family, including his wife, Barrie Landry, and their daughters, H. Gwinn Landry ’93, Ed. M. ’01, and Jennifer B. Landry Le ’99. Construction now under way will add 20,000 square feet between the facility and Gordon Track; there will be new locker rooms, updated concession and “hospitality” areas, workout facilities, and coaches’ offices. The Landrys previously endowed the women’s ice hockey coaching position (see “To Russia, with Gloves,” page 36).
Japanese art. The Harvard Art Museums have been promised a gift of 3o0 works of art—principally screens and hanging scrolls from the Edo (1615-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods. The works were collected by Robert ’61 and Betsy Feinberg, who will also fund the study center within the Sackler Museum when the renovated Fogg complex opens next fall.
Miscellany. Lane MacDonald ’88, formerly managing director of public markets, has been appointed managing director for private equity at Harvard Management Company (HMC), which invests the endowment. Private equity, one of the largest categories of invested assets, has become increasingly competitive, yielding returns below historic results and recent expectations.…David H. Petraeus, retired four-star Army general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has joined Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a non-resident senior fellow.…The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has announced that Cabot Science Library and the adjacent Science Center atrium will be redesigned for digital learning and enhanced student social space.…The Parker Quartet will join the department of music as both Blodgett artists-in-residence and as teaching faculty this fall, succeeding the current resident artists, the Chiara Quartet.…For its September 27-29 celebration of 60 years of alumnae, Harvard Law School managed to attract a law-firm or business sponsor for all but a few of its panel discussions—with the Harvard Law School Association sponsoring the rest. The Friday evening event was the “Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Plenary Dinner & Celebration 60 Awards.”…The inaugural, University-wide report of giving, launched to coincide with The Harvard Campaign, identifies four gifts, all previously disclosed, of $25 million or more during 2011-2012—together totaling $235 million. A dozen gifts (two anonymous) were listed in the “$10 million and above” category.
