Yesterday's News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

1919

The Endowment Fund Committee notes that faculty members have “been struggling along with truly admirable self-denial” on a pay scale set in 1905 [instructors earn $1,200-$1,500, assistant professors $2,500-$3,000, full professors $4,000-$5,500]. The committee urges a 50 percent increase, one of several urgent outlays that require raising the campaign’s goal from $10 million to $15.25 million. 

1934

The Harvard Corporation declines a gift for a traveling scholarship (for use in Germany) from twenty-fifth reunioner E.F.S. Hanfstaengl ’09 because of his close association with “a political party which has [damaged German universities] through measures which have struck at principles…fundamental to universities throughout the world.”

1959

The College’s eighth House, Quincy, opens for business, complete with snack bar, washing machines, and one refrigerator and storage room per suite. 

1969

Of 140 students in the Medical School’s first-year class, 17 are black. During orientation, associate professor of surgery John C. Norman ’50, M.D. ’54, who had been asked to discuss “Possible Problems of the Black Student-Physician in the Harvard Community,” noted instead that “on infrequent occasions one or two, but in no case more than three, American Negroes entered [the school] in any particular year” until that week. To his knowledge, said Norman, “it has not been demonstrated what these problems have been, because minority-group health sciences personnel, in any meaningful numbers, have not yet been included in the Harvard ‘community.’” 

1989

Harvard Divinity School opens a doctoral program in religion, gender, and culture—the first of its kind in the country and an outgrowth of the school’s successful women’s studies in religion program. 

2004

For the first time, slightly more women (828) than men (818) enroll in the cohort of students entering the College, making the class of 2008 historic even before they begin their studies.

Click here for the September-October 2014 issue table of contents

You might also like

An Original Magna Carta, Hidden in Plain Sight

A rare original surfaces at Harvard at an “almost providential” moment. 

Yesterday’s News

Seniors’ uncertain future c. 1940, Harvard Law Review news, and more

Alice Hamilton

Brief life of a public-health pioneer and reformer: 1869-1970

Most popular

Danielle Allen Debates Far-Right Blogger Curtis Yarvin

Popular monarchist debates Allen on democracy.

The Teen Brain

It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them...

Social Media Use and Adult Depression

A survey reveals suprising links between social media use and depression in adults.

Explore More From Current Issue

Harvard Commencement and Alumni Events 2025

Harvard Commencement and Alumni Events 2025

Why Taxi Drivers Don’t Die of Alzheimer’s

Explaining taxi and ambulance drivers’ protection against Alzheimer’s disease.

Addressing Gaps in Care for Patients with Disabilities

Lisa Iezzoni explores the unmet needs of patients with disabilities.