Retrospection
The Class of 1918
It was easy to get in then. No personal essays required, just a series of entrance examinations. 73 percent of applicants were admitted. Admittedly, there are lots of reasons to discount these numbers. The exams required special preparation available only at a few elite prep schools. There was no Common App, no female students, and only 937 people applied.
In And Around Language: "Midterm"
Please sit down. We’re passing out booklets now. You should have a question sheet and two booklets. Raise your hand if you—sorry about that James, there you go. You’ll have 53 minutes; there are four sections. We’ve included a suggested time for each section. I’ll also keep track of how much time is left on the board. And...begin.
The Politics and History of Kuumba
Today, the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College is a choir of more than 100 members. Its mission “to express the creativity and spirituality of black people through song” has endured over the years, though the group has experienced many changes and faced various challenges since its founding in 1970. “No one person can understand Kuumba completely,” the choir’s vice president Matthew S. Williams ’14 says. “It’s still a mystery to me how this group has been able to last and maintain so much of what makes it itself for so long.”
Greek Life Timeline
Though Final Clubs, fraternities, and sororities are long-standing staples of the Harvard social scene, their presence is anything but static. Last year, sorority Alpha Phi set down its roots in Cambridge, while fraternity Kappa Sigma reinstated its Harvard chapter last week after an eighty-year hiatus. FM digs into the archives to create a chronology of Harvard’s dynamic Greek life.
The History of Harvard Housing
Over the years, Harvard's housing has drastically changed. With Housing Day coming up, here's a look a back at the biggest events in Harvard housing history.
Harvard College Tavern
Once upon a time, a student at Harvard could speak openly of his drunken whereabouts:
J-Term: 5 Years Out
In March 2004, Harvard’s Calendar Reform Committee released a report recommending that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences move exams to before winter break. Gone would be the days of returning to campus for final exams barely a day after the ball dropped for the new year. Instead, FAS would allow for 62 days of classes each semester, five to eight days of reading period, and eight days for exams. It was suggested the longer winter break this schedule opened up could potentially house its own mini-term.
10 Peculiar Bequests in Harvard's History
Harvard can claim the largest university library in the nation, multiple companies around the world, much of Boston and Allston, and lots of money. But the University also owns some bizarre things thanks to past bequests by donors. FM researched some of the most shocking and peculiar donations made in the history of the University to learn more about their origins and how they came under Harvard’s possession.
Summing up 2013 in Fifteen Minutes
We’re about to wrap up a year of recovering from Miley Cyrus, celebrating celebrity babies, and grappling with government hysteria. In honor of our namesake, we compiled a list of the fifteen minutes—some historically significant, others not much more than a filler story that ended up dominating national news—that defined 2013, to read and remember before we ring in the new year.
In the Control Room
Douglas H. Shafner, currently a security officer at Harvard, witnessed the events of November 22, 1963 from a close vantage point: the master control room of Walter Cronkite’s CBS.
The Smith Campus Center and the Ghost of the Harvard Union
At the turn of the 20th century, the Harvard Union was built to provide a club for social purposes open to all Harvard University students; the space was meant to unify a social scene that seemed to be primarily run solely by final clubs and other “elite” institutions.
Retrospection: Freshmen Union
The Freshmen Union was formerly located in what is now known as the Barker Center.
Past Tense: Drinking Age
In 1964, a truck used to roll through Harvard Yard selling sandwiches. One day, when the truck arrived, a freshman asked the vendor, “But where can I get a beer?” Without hesitation, the driver gave the student the name and number of a “business.” Within 15 minutes, another delivery truck rolled into the Yard with a case of beer, delivering it to his freshman dorm.
Female Final Clubs: A Retrospection
Final clubs for Harvard men date back to 1791, but final clubs for women at Harvard didn’t emerge until a full 200 years later, in 1991. Though less institutionalized and established than their male counterparts, female final clubs have significantly impacted Harvard’s social scene in their two decades of existence
The Hound and the Horn
The story of The Hound & Horn, begun when two underclassmen broke off from the ruthless social and literary hierarchy of Harvard undergraduate publications and pursued their own course, ultimately faded away into the history of the many short-lived literary publications
In And Around Language: "Twerking"
Many millenials have had the inauspicious pleasure of watching Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance. Well, performance is a strong word. For six minutes, hell was recreated on stage with all the attendant teddy bears and rasping attempts at singing. But the piece of the Miley experience that had people up in arms screaming over social media was her twerking, a word which largely hadn’t entered our vocabulary until the ex-Disney starlet graphically displayed its meaning on national television.
FM Throwback Thursday
Besides Natural Light, boxed wine, and stein club ales, Harvard students in the 1950s had the option of drinking Harvard Brewing Co. beers.
The Gates Unbarred: Seamus Heaney at Harvard
It is a natural, perhaps inevitable reaction, when confronted with news of a star, to try to bask in his or her reflected light.
A Modern Moment
On January 23, 1957, renowned architect and Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design Josep Lluís Sert sat down to write a letter. Its mission: Convince the controversial modernist sensation Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier, to make his first visit to Cambridge. “Is there any chance of getting you to come here sometime next fall or spring?” he wrote. “Both MIT and this School are willing to do their best to get you to come here.”