After discussion earlier this spring, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations has decided to offer a new concentration track beginning in fall 2012 focused on the history, politics, and cultures of the contemporary Middle East.

With the graduation of the Class of 2012, the Core is officially dead. But students have not quite grasped how the 56 percent of the senior class that chose Gen Ed is differently educated from their peers who stuck with the old formula.

The festivities, which drew 44,000 attendees, were part of one of the largest and most extravagant birthday parties the country has ever seen and brought together members of the Harvard community from the class of 1918 to the Class of 1990.

Missing Class Day? Flyby has you covered. If you weren't able to snag a seat to the event itself, you can still follow along as we give you minute-by-minute updates of what's taking place. Check it out between 2 and 4:30 p.m. here.

As a student at Radcliffe College, Elizabeth Holtzman ’62. who would later go on to hold some of the highest offices in New York government, had her first taste of political organizing.

Students and faculty in the social sciences division—which houses the two largest concentrations, economics and government—point to a divide in the strength of the advising students receive.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discussed her long-unknown Jewish heritage and her new book, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1984, on Friday afternoon at Upstairs on the Square.

Economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw, head of the popular introductory course Economics 10: Principles of Economics and adviser to presidential candidate Mitt Romney, will take over as chair of the economics department starting on July 1. He will replace professor John Y. Campbell, who is wrapping up a three-year term as chair.

Scholars, artists, and community activists convened this weekend at the fourth annual Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Conference to discuss the experience of African American Muslims.

In the days after President Barack Obama’s nomination of Jim Yong Kim as the president of the World Bank, opinions of Harvard government and public health professors on this relatively unorthodox choice have been split.