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Commencement and Alumni Events
Commencement week includes addresses by interim president Alan M. Garber and journalist and leading free-press advocate Maria Ressa, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. See harvardmagazine.com/commencement for updates. For general information, …
Issue: May-June 2024
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
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 …
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
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 …
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
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
Cambridge 02138
Immigrant Children Thank you for the enlightening article, “ From Neither Here Nor There ,” by Lydialyle Gibson, about the work of sociologist Roberto Gonzales (July-August, page 32). He shows us the heartbreak and ruin of so many lives, due to our …
Issue: September-October 2020
The Rights of Nature
Happy is 54 years old , 8,500 pounds, and, notably, an elephant. Nonetheless, in 2018, a group called the Nonhuman Rights Project sued on Happy’s behalf, arguing that she is a legal person (like a corporation or a ship), and therefore should be able to …
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
Study Finds “Cultural Gap” between Harvard Athletics and Academics
A study of the Harvard Department of Athletics, released today, highlighted a “cultural and structural gap” between athletics and academics at Harvard. Commissioned in the fall of 2019 by Claudine Gay, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the …