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The following is a summary of the major news events at Harvard from the past academic year, as reported by The Crimson.
September
* A series of campaigns were launched on campus to protest the nuclear arms race "One effort sought to make the issue an important part of Congressional races in 27 key Congressional districts Another was a drive in which local ice cream parlors contributed part of their profits to the nuclear freeze drive.
* A water seepage problem resulting in structural flaws caused serious damage--including buckling floors to portions of the three-year-old Radcliffe Quad gym Part of the facility was reopened in December. The other portions are still closed.
* A pattern of complaints about the quality of gynecological and obstetric care at the University Health Services (UHS) prompted a formal grievance against two Harvard physicians, and an official investigation of the service. UHS Director Dr. Warren E.C. Wacker defended the doctors, calling all the operations medically justified. In addition, statistical analysis showed the difference in the number of Caesarians commissioned by the two physicians and the average of all doctors at the hospital were minor.
* A 31-year-old associate professor, James T. Engell '73, received tenure in English Officials said that approximately four of the Faculty's 230 junior members are promoted to tenure each year.
October
* The Marching Band's traditional off-color routine offended at least two opposing schools sufficiently to prompt their administrators to take action. The West Point athletic director expressed displeasure with the hand's performance two years ago when it ridiculed an American president and the rigid life of a cadet. The Army barred the band from attending the October game played at West Point Following the game against the University of Massachusetts. UMass president David Knapp sent a letter to President Bok complaining about obscenities in the band's act. That prompted a meeting between band members. Bok and Dean of students Archie C. Epps III where the crew was told to temper their shows.
* Two administrators received promotions in the ranks of Massachusetts Hall. Robert H. Scott, a high-ranking financial officer known for long-range planning skills, filled the vacant spot of vice president for administration, which manages the University's service departments, such as Buildings and Grounds and Food Services. Scott also took over responsibility for the development and upkeep of the University's physical plant. Daniel Steiner '54, widely considered President Bok's closest adviser in his 12 years as general counsel to the University, was given the new title of vice president and general counsel In the reshuffling, Steiner took over responsibility for overseeing Harvard Real Estate, the multimillion dollar non-profit organization that manages the University's property. He continued to hold his old responsibilities of overseeing all Harvard's labor relations, legal matters and supervising police and personnel departments. (For a look at how Harvard uses its inside and outside legal counsel, see page B-1)
* Two Black law students, reportedly the largest number in a single year, were among the 51 new editors selected for the Harvard Law Review They were picked in the first year of the Review's affirmative action plan, adopted the previous year amid heated debate, which permits applicants to submit a statement of special obstacles they have faced.
* A Brown University professor and six Brown students released a Black student's guide to the nation's colleges which said that Harvard's "predominantly while atmosphere" fosters "some tensions" for Black students. Harvard officials said the write-up was unbalanced, noting that it failed to acknowledge the existence of the University's race relations foundation.
* Sheldon Glashow, the Nobel Prize-winning Higgins Professor of Physics, said that Texas A&M University was dangling before him a seven-figure salary that would match the record for the largest financial package any American college or university had offered an individual. Glashow is apparently still weighing the tentative offer.
* The Medical School celebrated its 200th anniversary with a week of pomp and symposia, and the event brought together perhaps the greatest group of medical talent ever assembled at Harvard. Beginning with three doctors lecturing to a handful of students in the basement of Harvard Hall, the Med School has grown into $95 million per year operation with more than 3000 faculty and 700 students.
It rained, however, both literally and figuratively on the school's parade. Overcast skies detracted from the week's closing ceremonies, and the upbeat sentiment at the festivities was dampened by a report that federal auditors charged the Med School with owing the U.S. government as much as $1.7 million in research funds they say the University mismanaged and poorly documented.
* The Undergraduate Council the product of two years of thorough review of student governance, held its first elections and drew more candidates and more voters than in any student race in recent years. The body's centralization and its $55,000 budget--two features which the previous student assembly lucked--contributed to student interest. A few weeks later, Michael G. Coluntuons '83, a campus gay rights leader was elected the council's first chairman. (For an analysis of the Council's first year, see page A-1)
* The Administrative Board changed from "C" to "pans" the grade of a student who said she was sexually harassed the previous semester by the poet Derek Walcott, a visiting professor in the English Department. It was reportedly the first time the College has changed a letter grade to pass/fail because of a professor's possible bias in determining the grade.
* In an effort to stem the deterioration of the Houses, the College decided to accelerate its $48 million renovation program. All upperclass Houses will be extensively overhauled over the next four years, rather than eight as originally planned. (For more information on the renovation, see page A-11)
November
* Results of a survey of undergraduates conducted the previous May showed that despite reporting minimal contact with tutors and House masters, they were generally very pleased with their overall Harvard and House experiences. The results showed an overall increase in the level of satisfaction compared with three previous surveys conducted over the decade.
* The first comprehensive comparative study of U.S. doctoral programs conducted in the past 12 years showed the Harvard graduate faculty members rank first in the nation in Classics, Philosophy and Spanish. A later portion of the survey, re- after Dr. John R. Darsee had admitted to falsifying research results in the hospital's Cardiac Research lab in May 1981.
March
*Controversy broke out over Harvard's relations with two different branches of the military. A group of students belonging to the Reserve Officers Training Corps, (ROTC) applied to the College to form a friends of ROTC club, which would be the first official Harvard recognition of the program since the University severed ties with ROTC in 1969. After a prolonged discussion stretched over social weeks, the administration approved the club but made it clear they were not supporting ROTC itself.
The second battle came over a planned Navy recruiting visit which students protested because of the military branch's rules forbidding homosexuals from serving. More than 500 people signed a petition forcing the Navy--according to College policy to hold an open meeting on its hiring practices in mid April. The next day, the recruiter came without fanfare and talked to four students
*Harvard Physics Professor Paul Horowitz activated a sophisticated radio telescope designed to defect deliberate signals from extra terrestrials. The 84 foot telescope will scan between 10,000 and 100,000 stars over the next four years (For a description of other lively research projects Harvard professors worked on during the year, see pages B 45).
*In a major reversal of statements made by officials in February, the College announced that unlimited summer storage for undergraduates would continue. The impetus for maintaining the policy was a report compiled by the Under-graduate. Council which catalogued several places through the University where students' belongings could be stored.
*More than 350 Law students packed a Law School lecture hall to attack the school's administration on a wide once range of issues. Close to half the school's faculty attended the two hour exchange, which focused on affirmative action, curriculum changes and the lack of student input in administrative decision making.
*The University announced it would begin construction of a $1 million outdoor track which, designers say, will set new standards for building techniques and surface composition. The new tracks facility will replace two obsolete cinder tracks currently used Officials also said they would spend more than $200,000 to make the football stadium more accessible to disabled students. (For a rundown on Harvard's athletic facilities in transition see page D-7).
*A new study showed that cocaine use at Harvard had risen significantly, from an almost negligible rate in 1977 to 3 percent in 1981. As many as 7 percent of all undergraduates have tried it at least once, according to the report.
*Stanford University sociologist Nancy B. Tuma turned down a tenure offer from Harvard. She became the third scholar in a year to turn down a tenured post, dealing a blow to the department's efforts to build up its senior faculty. All three are specialists in the quantitative branch of sociology, a field split by a general dispute as to the best methods of research. Confusion has bred personnel disputes at Harvard, with professors split over whether to hire data analysis or researchers with more historical and theoretical approaches.
*Student governments from seven schools formed an unprecedented umbrella organization to deal with issues of common concern such as financial aid, minority questions, and tuition.
*The Kennedy School of Government announced the formation of a scholarship which would bring West German students to study public policy. The program was named after John J. McCloy, high commissioner to Germany and assistant secretary of war during World War II. The announcement sparked protests from Jewish and Asian students, who faulted McCloy for overseeing Japanese internment, derailing plans to bomb the railroad to the Auschwitz concentration camps during the war and commuting the sentences of several Nazi leaders after the war.
*The Glee Club celebrated its 125th anniversary with an elaborate two-day program of concerts, banquets and speeches, highlighted by a special composition in the group's honor by composer comedian Peter Schickcle (a.k.a. PDQ Bach) Among the club's distinguished alums are Leonard Bernstein '39, and Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun '29.
*It was made public that late playwright Tennessee Williams empowered a member of the Faculty to administer the both of his estimated $10 million estate as a fund to promote creative writing, though it remains unclear whether Harvard will spend any The gift leaves most of the estate to create a special writing fund at the University of the South in Tennessee.
April
*The College moved closer to the computer age by installing coin operated word processors in three Houses and the Freshman Union.
*The Graduate School of Education planned a sweeping series of budget cuts for next year, the most severe in recent memory. The slashes, totalling $275,000 will result in laying off nine faculty members and administrators and reducing hours for 15 others, as well as cutting back library hours. The reasons cited for the move included a low endowment, the declining economy, and the decision to hold down a tuition increase to 8.4 percent. The cuts angered several students, who felt they were not sufficiently consulted on the decision.
*Iconoclastic I F. Stone, who grained fame in the 60s for his newsletter investigating U S involvement in Vietnam spent two weeks at Harvard, meeting with students and delivering a three-part lecture series on Plato Speaking matter-of-faculty, sitting down with no notes. Stone filled the Kennedy School Forum all three nights.
*Student protests over University investments in firms doing business in South Africa took a new twist from the rallies that have taken place in previous springs. A group of seniors set up, and the Undergraduate Council agreed to administer an Endowment for Divestiture, an escrow account which will be turned over to Harvard on the condition that it divests within the next 20 years. Another band of students held a week-long hunger strike as a symbolic protest of Harvard's policies. (For a comprehensive look at South Africa and its connections with Harvard, see Section F).
*Exiled Korean dissident Kim Dae Jung announced that he will come to Harvard as a fellow at the Center for International Affairs next year. A former South Korean presidential candidate and a long-time opponent of the Korean martial law government, Kim came to the United States last December after years of imprisonment and harassment. (For a look at Harvard as a haven for international refuges, see page C-8).
*University officials announced that Polish labor leader Lech Walesa had accepted an invitation to speak at this year's Commencement exercises. An acceptance would have marked the dissident's first trip out of Poland since the crackdown on Solidarity in December 1981, and his first trip to the United States ever. But the University's hopes were dashed when later that same day. UPI reported that Walesa could not make it, a fact it confirmed later in the month through secret intermediaries. (For a detailed account of the Walesa invitation, see page 15).
*The Division of Applied Sciences recommended Associate Professor Phillip A. Bernstein for tenure, but President Bok overturned the proposal, a move which apparently cost the University an advanced computer system worth $200,000. Bok turns down 10 to 15 percent of all departmental tenure nominations a year.
*Diana Gargon of the Graduate School of Education sponsored a research project on "video game-playing and spatial perception," and as part of the project gave students five hours of free playing time for one week. The project will discover" a whole new type of literacy," Gargon said.
*Sixty Harvard undergraduates kicked off a $250,000 fundraising drive as part of a project to fight world hunger. The drive will culminate in a "Ride for Life" over the summer, a transcontinental bicycle expedition. Thirty-nine Harvard students committed themselves to ride the entire 3800 miles in eight weeks.
*The full Faculty approved the continuation of the Core Curriculum, capping off a lengthy review of the four year-old program that produced no major changes in it. Some issues that will probably be addressed in the near future include the expansion of Moral Reasoning offerings, and the inclusion of more survey and departmental courses
May
*Harvard Budget Office Director Ann S. Ram say announced that she was leaving her post to work for a multinational computer company as a government liaison. With her departure, the financial office will complete its reorganization and break into four divisions: internal audits, sponsored research, financial systems, and budgets.
*President Bok issued a broad attack on the American legal system, calling it inequitable and inefficient, and blaming it for draining too many fine minds from productive fields. The report received wide publicity, including praise from several newspapers, and harsh criticism from many lawyers.
*The Law School added a second woman to its tenured faculty. Elizabeth Bartholet '62 became the third tenured woman in the school's history.
*Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky released a broad new policy statement of sexual harassment that, for the first time, put the Faculty on record as opposing certain "amorous" relationships between students and teachers. It also offered to change grades which are found to have been biased due to sexual harassment.
*Twenty years after they were kicked out for their experiments with LSD. Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert returned to Harvard to reminisce. They were greeted by a packed Sanders Theater audience, which cheered at such statements as "I think it's possible that you might damage your mind, but I don't think LSD does."
*Two speeches drew an unusually high level of protest and heckling--one by the Rev. Jerry Falwell at the Kennedy School, the other by the leading American official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The Moral Majority leader attracted a crowd of students--some dressed in drag and some in Falwell costumes--who protested his positions against the nuclear freeze and women's issues. Abdul Rahman, director of the PLO Information Office drew more serious protests for his statements that Israel was responsible for genocide in the Middle East.
*The Government Department provoked student protest by refusing to promote Assistant Professor Ethel Klein, one of the leading women's studies scholars at Harvard.
*Five Harvard specialists on nuclear weapons policy published a book supporting a partial nuclear freeze, backing deployment of new NATO missiles in Europe and opposing the B1-bomber but it reached no conclusion on the proposed MX. The study, "Living With Nuclear Weapons" culminated a year long projecting that began the previous June when President Bok announced at Commencement that the University should help to educate the public by providing an objective report on nuclear issues.
*The Undergraduate Council presented its first batch of teaching awards. The winners were Cheryl Wites a government tutor Joseph J. Hetcher '57 professor of Chinese History and Marshall Hyatt, assistant professor of Afro American studies.
*More than 300 people assembled for a rally in support of food service workers in their negotiations with Harvard. The union is asking for a one year contract with a dollar-an-hour, across the board wage hike, free medical insurance, and a dental plan for union members. The current contract runs out June 19.
*More than 500 law students mobbed the dean's office to protest the faculty's decision to consider class participation when grading certain classes. The protests forced an open meeting and a decision by the faculty to delay implementation of the policy.
*The percentage of Black students accepting Harvard's offer of admissions plummeted for the second straight year, despite intensified recruiting efforts. The yields of all other minorities, including Hispanics and Chicanos, rose.
*Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky announced that he would step down effective June, 1984. He will have served 11 years, longer than any recent dean. During his tenure, he is credited with conceiving and implementing the Core Curriculum. (For a look at Rosovsky's decade as dean, see page B-1).
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