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New Schedule, New Math
At its regularly scheduled meeting this afternoon, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS): adopted a new, uniform schedule for classes, beginning in 2018, anticipating the expansion of the campus across the Charles River in 2020; discussed undergraduates’ …
Cartography Animated
Mapmaking, especially before the Enlightenment, had as much to do with imagination as with scientific fact. Renaissance cartographers depicted strange, quasi-mythological creatures in the far reaches of the ocean. Imposing megafauna trod across early …
Issue: March-April 2021
Divestment Slate Achieves Place on Overseer Ballot
The Harvard Forward (HF)-backed slate of petition candidates for Overseer has been certified for the ballot, following a tally by the Office of the Governing Boards (OGB). To qualify, the five petitioners each had to submit 2,936 valid nominating …
$200 Million Gift Underwrites Climate and Sustainability Institute
A n academic year that began with the appointment of environmental economist James Stock as the University’s new vice provost for climate and sustainability is drawing to a close with the announcement today of a $200 million gift to underwrite Harvard …
John S. Rosenberg , Jonathan Shaw
Fracking’s Deadly Toll
During the past two decades, U.S. oil and gas production has soared as hydraulic fracturing technology has made it possible to exploit formerly inaccessible resources. Drillers fracture (hence “fracking”) oil- and gas-containing rock formations with …
Issue: July-August 2022
Divestment Digest
As reported, briefly, in the March-April issue, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted on February 4 in favor of a motion calling on the Corporation to instruct Harvard Management Company to shed investments in future fossil-fuel production and to …
Issue: May-June 2020
News Briefs
Toward a Fossil-Fuel-Free Future President Drew Faust announced on February 6 that Harvard would “seek to become fossil fuel free” by 2050—meeting energy needs sustainably and setting goals for purchased services that “rely as little as possible on fossil …
John S. Rosenberg , Marina N. Bolotnikova
Issue: May-June 2018
Tracy K. Smith ’94 Named U.S. Poet Laureate
TRACY K. SMITH ’94 has been named the new U.S. Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress, succeeding Juan Felipe Herrera. While the role doesn’t carry many specific official duties, it has traditionally involved raising awareness of, and increasing access …
A Thumb on the Scale
In February 2004 , when Harvard allotted an additional $2 million per year in scholarship funds for undergraduates from families with incomes of $60,000 or less, the College estimated that 73.9 percent of matriculants came from the highest socioeconomic …
Issue: May-June 2005
Harvard’s Expanding Allston Plans
Last night , University officials presented the proposed first steps toward developing its “enterprise research campus” (ERC)—a non-academic “innovation” district for established companies and startups, as well as a hotel and conference center, together …
Betting on Lookout Farm
As a serial entrepreneur, who had founded some 30 businesses, Steven Belkin, M.B.A. ’71, was primed to find out if his Lookout Farm in Natick, Massachusetts, could succeed not in spite of the pandemic, but because of it. “‘Open an outdoor restaurant?’” he …
Issue: September-October 2021
President Bacow’s Baccalaureate Address
First, I’d like to thank all the participants in the Baccalaureate service today, our readers, our chaplains, our wonderful musicians, our composers, everyone who’s participated. Please join me in thanking everybody. Well, I’ve waited a long time to say …
Clergy Roar like Lions
"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912) was a transcendentalist, early feminist, reformer, and sometime attendee at Harvard Commencements. Her diary was published last fall: Daughter of Boston: …
Issue: July-August 2006
A Sensitive Census
The revelation last autumn that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) had made offers of tenured professorships to only four women during academic year 2003-2004—fewer than in any year save one during the preceding decade—set off the debate …
Issue: September-October 2005
How U.S. Companies Stole American Jobs
Thirty or 40 years ago, companies like General Motors and Chase Manhattan Bank hired their own janitors and clerical staff, not just top executives and engineers. Today, low-skilled jobs are often outsourced, with effects that are rippling across the …
Issue: July-August 2017