1915
Commencement Day events include the formal presentation of Widener Memorial Library to the University—and an undergraduate oration by Edward Estlin (“e.e.”) Cummings ’15.
1925
The Associated Harvard Clubs’ Committee on Service to the University suggests that descendants of graduates be given preference in admissions; the Bulletin’s editors write, “Inbreeding within the student body would be quite as dangerous for the College itself as inbreeding in the Faculty would be. The latter kind of limitation has not been observed at Harvard in our memory; the former kind never should be established.”
1940
A poll of seniors reveals that 52 percent anticipate a life “characterized by possible social and cultural turmoil, crisis, and catastrophe”; 56 percent feel the New Deal “should be either halted and abandoned or curtailed and modified”; and 18 percent believe Western culture is declining—though one man writes, “I don’t know—will have to wait until the next Marx Bros. picture comes out.”
1990
The 103-year-old Harvard Law Review reports the election of its first black president, Barack Obama [J.D. ’91], who “called his election a signal to black students at all levels that they can still achieve, although ‘discriminatory barriers remain formidable and there are tremendous educational problems, particularly for the poor…’”
2010
Reflecting on the undergraduate experience, The New Yorker’s Patricia Marx ’75 wrote, “I’m not saying that a degree in Folklore and Mythology won’t help your daughter land a job, but a gift certificate for a…vocational course makes a handy present.”
2020
Harvard stages an online “degree-conferral ceremony.” The magazine’s July-August cover features a vacant Tercentenary Theatre, photographed on May 28 (the date for the Morning Exercises), with the stark text “Covid-19, Commencement ’20.”
