Yesterday’s News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Illustration by Mark Steele

1934

The College funds five $1,000 fellowships for prospective freshmen who live and attend school in the Midwest: an experiment by President James B. Conant to attract “the most promising young men throughout the whole nation.”

1939

“The Undergraduate Week,” by William R. Frye ’40, reports: “If Harvard ever was composed solely of the ‘upper crust’ of society, it is not so composed now”: the Student Employment Office, organized to provide jobs for men facing financial difficulties, is serving nearly one-third of the undergraduate body.

1964

Harvard opens a housing office; its first task is assigning apartments in one section of Peabody Terrace that has been finished nine months ahead of schedule.

1969

A faculty committee chaired by professor of economics Henry Rosovsky proposes a degree program and research center for Afro-American studies.

1984

The Law School faculty approves a pilot program to provide about $125,000 in loans to supplement the earnings of first- and second-year law students who take low-paying, law-related jobs in the public-service or public-interest sector during the summer.

2004

Dean of the Law School Elena Kagan decides on the spur of a frozen January moment to flood the field by Harkness Commons to form a skating rink that will remain open, she says, “until it melts.” 

2009

Harvard men’s basketball records its first win over a nationally ranked opponent, Boston College (which had beaten the nation’s top team only a week before), as shooting guard Jeremy Lin ’10 scores 27 points and makes eight assists and six steals.

You might also like

Football: Harvard 31-Dartmouth 27

A fourth-quarter rally vaults the Crimson into first place.

President Garber’s Agenda

Focusing on Harvard’s academic opportunities and frontiers

“Building Bridges” Across Disagreements

Harvard establishes a fund for student projects that create community.

Most popular

Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?

Historian Alexander Keyssar on why the unpopular institution has prevailed 

Social Media Use and Adult Depression

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

The End of the Ivy League?

College sports are changing. Will Harvard athletics?

More to explore

Do Ivy League Athletes Outperform in Careers?

How does undergraduate participation in varsity sports enhance career success?