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Campus Survey: Sexual Assault, Harassment Remain Serious Problems
On October 15, Harvard released the results of a survey intended to estimate the prevalence of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct among its undergraduate, graduate, and professional-school students. The survey, conducted during the spring of …
Arts and Sciences Dean to Leave Office
Friday evening , January 27, was quiet, with the College dispersed for intercession. Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) dean William C. Kirby was returning from fundraising meetings in New York. President Lawrence H. Summers was at the World Economic …
Issue: March-April 2006
The Financial Fallout
In the fall of 2008, as banks and markets collapsed, Harvard discovered enormous problems in its own financial structure and operations. By year’s end, under duress, the University had to borrow $2.5 billion at high interest rates to maintain liquidity …
Highlighting Indigenous People’s “Connection to a Place”
In late May , the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) Executive Committee made a decision to recognize the First Nations people from the Americas and from all around the world: all future HAA board and annual meetings will open with a formal acknowledgment …
Charles Lieber Arrested
Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, and a University Professor , a designation bestowed on only the most eminent scholars, has been arrested, charged with misleading investigators from the Department of …
Making Charitable Giving More Competent
Psychologists and moral philosophers have long known that positive emotions drive charitable giving, and nonprofits rely on this impulse to help others when they solicit donations. But what if some of these same warm feelings actually prevent donors from …
Issue: May-June 2023
Unfinished Business
The End of any administration is an occasion to reflect upon what has been accomplished, and for speculation about what may be forthcoming. This magazine will report on Lawrence S. Bacow’s service as it concludes after Commencement and Claudine Gay’s as …
Issue: May-June 2023
Why Some Citizens Reject Science
For many americans, the wave of disinformation and defiance of medical authority that arrived with the coronavirus was their first face-to-face encounter with the high-stakes consequences of science denialism. Within months of the outbreak, the global …
Issue: September-October 2021
N.P. Narvekar Appointed New Harvard Management Company Leader
A week after Harvard Management Company (HMC) reported continued disappointing investment returns for the University’s $35.7 billion endowment , the University announced that N.P. Narvekar, chief executive officer of Columbia University Investment …
The Endowment Ebbs
The University’s endowment was valued at $35.7 billion last June 30, the end of fiscal year 2016—a decrease of $1.9 billion (5.1 percent) from a year earlier. The fiscal 2016 depreciation reflects a negative 2.0 percent investment return, and the effects …
Issue: November-December 2016
A New Prescription for Drug Development
Almost all the drugs that physicians prescribe to cure diseases or treat specific medical conditions were discovered by trial and error, and the way they work is frequently not well understood. But that outmoded discovery process and the lack of …
Harvard Capital Campaign Nearing $6.5-Billion Goal
Although the University has not issued a year-end 2015 update, it appears that The Harvard Campaign has become the largest-grossing higher-education fundraising effort on record. Indeed, individual schools’ results (see “The Schools’ Status,” below) …
Lessons Learned
What has the University discovered about itself from its exposure to the coronavirus? It may seem premature to speculate just a few months after the campus community largely dispersed. Yet there are apparent contradictions, important to sort out, between …
Issue: July-August 2020
News Briefs
Social Club Sanctions Citing their history of gender discrimination and negative influence on campus life, the College announced in May that it would ban members of historically male final clubs and other unrecognized, single-gender social groups from …
John S. Rosenberg , Marina N. Bolotnikova , Aidan Langston
Issue: July-August 2016
“Our Planet in Microcosm”
US. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Nicholas Burns addressed the 659 members of the Harvard Kennedy School’s class of 2024 at their Class Day on May 22, bearing a message of hope. Amid a litany of challenges facing this generation of …