1931 The Harvard Placement Service appeals for help as it tries to find work for graduating seniors and older alumni who have lost their jobs.
1936 A Cambridge city councilor has suggested that the University make the city a tercentenary gift of $300,000“on the grounds that ‘Harvard receives many benefits from the city and gives little in return.’ ”
1946 The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has voted to establish two new departments, one in biochemistry, the other in social relations. The latter will incorporate the existing department of sociology and portions of the existing anthropology and psychology departments.
1951 President Conant appears before the House Armed Services Committee on behalf of the Committee on the Present Danger, a nonpartisan group urging “an adequate defense for the United States.” He recommends drafting 18-year-olds and deferring, after basic training, 75,000 young men for specialized training and education.
1956 Freshmen seek an extension of parietal rules, complaining that upperclassmen may entertain women in their rooms until 11 p.m., while the freshman deadline is 8. The request is refused because “freshmen entertain more secondary-school girls than do upperclassmen.”
1961 Nineteen faculty members are among 250 American professors protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee, citing a dedication to the “proposition that free enquiry and free expression nourish mental growth and are thus basic to our nation’s strength.”
1971 A “barrage of chanting, shouting, stamping, and screaming” in Sanders Theatre ends a “counter teach-in” on the Vietnam War, sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe chapters of Young Americans for Freedom and the Young Republicans.
1976 The Faculty of Arts and Sciences considers ways to make ROTC programsterminated at Harvard in 1970 in the wake of protestsavailable again. One suggestion is to allow students to cross-register at MIT for noncredit courses in military science.
