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“A Melodic Being”
“The drums are calling out your name,” Ali Sethi ’06 exhorted the gyrating audience in Sanders Theatre, as he and his bandmates wound toward the climax of the night’s final number, a song with roots stretching back to the medieval period in what is now …
Issue: November-December 2019
Is Climate Change Ruining Fall?
New England displays some of the most dramatic fall color in the world. The crowds of leaf-peepers who come here to see color in the mountains also show up to take in Harvard’s yellowwoods, maples, oaks, and honey locusts. But foliage hunters may have …
Scenes from Commencement
Jim Harrison Seniors are led to Baccalaureate by class marshals (from left) Daniel Droller, of Eliot House and Pelham, New York; first marshal Gerard Hammond, of Cabot House and Brooklyn; Avik Chatterjee, of Adams House and Cary, North Carolina; and Nick …
Issue: July-August 2002
Language Wars
Lest you take these English words for granted, consider this: when the United States was founded, only 40 percent of the people living within its boundaries spoke English as their first language. Widener Library's shelves hold testaments to our …
Issue: March-April 2002
The Press Professor
Nicholas Lemann ’76 seems an unlikely candidate for the role of higher-education reformer. Best known as a columnist and Washington correspondent for the New Yorker, he doesn’t hold a graduate degree. He has taught occasional journalism classes, but has …
Issue: September-October 2005
School for Scholars
In what must have been Harvard's highest-level continuing-education course on higher education, presidents of seven universities in the People's Republic of China came to Cambridge to learn about the research university, American style, on October 29 and …
Fixing Medieval Wine
Every year, French wholesalers airlift cases of Beaujolais Nouveau worldwide so that wine shops can start selling bottles to the public on the third Thursday in November. In the unlikely event that the contents have not traveled well, a customer merely …
Educating Educators
Bridget Terry Long had the good timing to become dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) on July 1, 2018—the same day that the education-minded Lawrence S. Bacow assumed the University presidency, making for a powerful potential …
Issue: July-August 2019
Harvard’s Undergraduate Council Kerfuffle
After 40 years, the Undergraduate Council (UC)—the Harvard College student government—is dead. During a four-day referendum voting period that concluded in late March, 76 percent of nearly 4,000 voting students decided to dismantle their current …
Harvard Finances: Strengths and Warning Signs
The University’s financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017 , released this morning, was full of the sorts of results that make budget officers happy: Revenue increased $222 million to nearly $5 billion (growth of 4.6 percent)—largely …
Weezer Releases New EP, "SZNZ: Spring"
Whether you love or hate Weezer’s new EP, SZNZ: Spring , might come down to whether drinking three cups of coffee and then taking some Benadryl sounds like a ball or a nightmare. If it seems fun, you might agree with AV Club’s Tatiana Tenreyro that …
An Egyptian Archaeological Treasure
The discovery of a trove of diaries written by Egyptian workers in the early twentieth century has brought together Egyptologists across the globe in an effort to transcribe and study the rare primary sources, which lend a local perspective to a “golden …
Kathy Delaney-Smith’s Final Act
In November , after her team thrashed Northern Illinois 70-53 in its home opener, Friends coach Kathy Delaney-Smith was asked about her recently announced plans to retire after the season, her fortieth at Harvard. “I’m not thinking about that,” the coach …
Place-Making with Plastic Tubes
To the passing observer , Autumn (...Nothing Personal) is merely a cluster of tall plastic yellow and orange tubes mounted on simple wooden benches in the middle of Harvard’s Tercentenary Theatre. Artist Teresita Fern á ndez, a first-generation Cuban …
Court Filings Allege Discrimination Against Asian-Americans in Admissions
Hundreds of pages of analysis of Harvard’s admissions practices became public Friday in the latest development of a lawsuit alleging the University discriminates against Asian-American applicants in its admissions process. The suit, filed in 2014 by the …