| NEWS ON THE INTERNET ABOUT HARVARD AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION |
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December 8, 2008 |
| Harvard awards Sen. Kennedy honorary degree |
 Political dignitaries, family members, current and former colleagues, faculty, students, old friends, and admirers were all part of the capacity crowd that filled Harvard's Sanders Theatre Dec. 1 to honor the life of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
See full article by Colleen Walsh of Harvard News Office at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/12.04/99-kennedy.html |
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November 25, 2008 |
| Mathematician Kiyoshi Ito dies at 93 |
 Japan mourns the death of Kiyoshi Ito, noted mathematician, who died on Nov 17 in Kyoto at age 93. Ito's career included time abroad at Princeton, Cornell, Stanford and Aarhus in Denmark. He made important contributions to the study of randomness that have been applied in fields such as finance and biology.
Details in NY times Nov 24 article by Steve Lohr at URL below (registration and/or subscription may be required). |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/24/business/24ito.html |
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November 22, 2008 |
| Gore: Universities have important role in sustainability |
 Former vice president Al Gore ’69 addressed a crowd of 15,000 in chilly, leaf-strewn Tercentenary Theatre on October 22nd, delivering the keynote address in a multi-day celebration of the University's commitment to sustainability.
See full Gazette article by Corydon Ireland, Harvard News Office |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/10.23/99-gore.html |
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November 22, 2008 |
| Past Harvard Club presenters open web site featuring Ikea film |
 Jon Thunqvist who presented his film Sofa For a Samurai at Harvard Club of Japan in April 2008 has opened a web site about the film at URL below. |
| www.sofaforsamurai.com |
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November 21, 2008 |
| Plan to shutter newsstand pierces heart of Harvard Square |
 John Kenneth Galbraith bought a copy of Le Monde there every day. Julia Child searched for obscure Italian and German cooking magazines, and Robert Frost once stopped by - it actually was a snowy evening - to get directions to a reading. Over the years, pretty much anyone looking for news from far and near, be they eminent professors or the masses rushing to work on the Red Line, found it at Out of Town News.
But the landmark shop, an axis at the center of Harvard Square's bustle, may be about to go away.
See full article at URL below from November 20, 2008 Boston globe by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff at URL below.
Photo above by Essdras M Suarez, Globe Staff.
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| http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/20/plan_to_shutter_newsstand_pierces_heart_of_harvard_sq/ |
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November 11, 2008 |
| Letter from Drew Faust about Harvard and the economy |
 Dear Harvard Alumni and Friends:
Earlier today I wrote to the Harvard community here on campus about the current global financial situation and its effect on the University. Now I write to share that letter with you, our loyal alumni and friends.
Sincerely,
Drew Gilpin Faust
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To Harvard Faculty, Students, and Staff:
I write today about the global economic crisis and its implications for us at Harvard.
We all know of the extraordinary turbulence still roiling the world's financial markets and the broader economy. The downturn is widely seen as the most serious in decades, and each day's headlines remind us that heightened volatility and persisting uncertainty have become our new economic reality.
For all the challenges such circumstances present, we are fortunate to be part of an institution remarkable for its resilience. Over centuries, Harvard has weathered many storms and sustained its strength through difficult times. We have done so by staying true to our academic values and our long-term ambitions, by carefully stewarding our resources and thoughtfully adapting to change. We will do so again.
But we must recognize that Harvard is not invulnerable to the seismic financial shocks in the larger world. Our own economic landscape has been significantly altered. We will need to plan and act in ways that reflect that reality, to assure that we continue to advance our priorities for teaching, research, and service.
Our principal sources of revenue are all likely to be affected by these new economic forces. Consider, first, the endowment. As a result of strong returns and the generosity of our alumni and friends, endowment income has come to fund more than a third of the University's annual operating budget. Our investments have often outperformed familiar market indexes, thanks to skillful management and broad diversification across asset classes. But given the breadth and the depth of the present downturn, even well-diversified portfolios are experiencing major losses. Moody's, a leading financial research and ratings service, recently projected a 30 percent decline in the value of college and university endowments in the current fiscal year. While we can hope that markets will improve, we need to be prepared to absorb unprecedented endowment losses and plan for a period of greater financial constraint.
The economic downturn also puts pressure on other revenues that fuel our annual budgets. Donors and foundations will be harder pressed to support our activities. Federal grants and contracts for sponsored research will be subject to the intensified stress on the federal budget. Tuition remains an important source of revenue, but in times like these we want to keep increases moderate, mindful that many students and families are facing economic strain.
Over the past several weeks I have been meeting individually and collectively with the deans of the faculties, as well as the Corporation, to share ideas on how we can best respond to this changed economic environment. We need to sustain our high academic ambitions at the same time that we bring greater financial discipline to all our activities. We have to think not just about what more we might wish to do, but what we might do at a different pace or do without. Tradeoffs and hard choices that can be avoided in times of plenty cannot be averted now. And, given the ongoing volatility and uncertainty, we need to plan and budget with a range of contingencies in view, including scenarios for reducing our spending both this year and next.
As we plan, we must also affirm our strong commitment to financial aid for our students. In Harvard College, that will mean carrying forward our recent years' initiatives to make a Harvard education affordable for outstanding students from low- and middle-income families. As before, families with incomes below $60,000 will pay nothing to send a child to Harvard College, and families with incomes up to $180,000 and typical assets can expect to pay no more than approximately 10 percent of income. Across our graduate and professional schools, we will maintain financial aid budgets at least at their current levels -- and ensure that our students still have access to needed loans, even though many banks are making them less readily available.
We have long been dedicated to research and the discovery of new knowledge across a wide range of fields of scientific and humanistic inquiry. In recent years we have made significant investments toward breaking down intellectual barriers across disciplines and across Schools to generate new knowledge and to develop new courses and educational opportunities for our students. These commitments must continue to guide us as we make decisions and choices in a significantly more constrained fiscal environment.
Harvard values its reputation as a stable and supportive employer, and we view our workforce as a critical part of all we do. We recognize as well the responsibility that comes with being one of the largest employers in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. At the same time, changing financial realities will require us to look carefully at compensation costs, which account for nearly half the University's budget.
We are assessing all aspects of our ambitious capital planning program, including the phasing and development of our campus in Allston.
We are working with administrative and financial deans from across the University to develop new approaches for generating both savings and new revenue sources, building on the ideas and best practices of each of the Schools.
Harvard is a famously decentralized place, and one size will not fit all. Each School will face its own particular challenges. But we must at the same time join together to address these new circumstances with creativity and a spirit of common enterprise.
Today, perhaps as never before, we need to work collectively to develop approaches and efficiencies that will allow every part of Harvard to thrive in the years to come. Together, we must continue to advance the priorities that define us.
For all that has changed in recent weeks, we remain devoted to attracting the very best students, faculty, and staff to Harvard. We will undertake the daily work of education and scholarship with the same intensity and imagination. We will set our academic sights just as high, and we will ensure that the ambitions and vibrancy of our community and the strength of its commitment to the pursuit of truth remain unsurpassed.
Drew Gilpin Faust
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November 6, 2008 |
| Harvard graduates in Japan congratulate Obama |
 Henry Seals, class of 96, says;
America has given the people of the world; of all genders, races, religions, economic status, and cultural ackgrounds, the gift of hope to believe and more than that to unequivocally know that together we can do anything, achieve any dream, and overcome any obstacle. Thank you President-Elect Obama, and thank you America for allowing us all to believe in ourselves, and our world, again.
(Seals works in Tokyo and is active on African-American empowerment.)
Annabelle Okada, Harvard A.B. '83, M.D. '88, says;
Congratulations to Barack Obama (Punahou '79, Harvard J.D. '91) for winning the U.S. presidential election! Barry, I am proud of you and moreover, I look forward to all your good works during your
term in office.
(Okada graduated from Punahou High School in 1979 with Obama. She is Secretary for Harvard Club of Japan.)
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November 6, 2008 |
| Obama to be American President |
 Barack H. Obama will be America's next president. He graduated from Law School with the doctor's in 1991. He served as president of the Harvard Law Review. Needless to say, he will be the first US president of both African and European origins.
He won the election by landslides, winning nearly 350 Electoral Colleges, as of November 5th.
His victory was celebrated across the United States and Kenya, his father's home country, as well as in Obama city, Fukui Prefecture, western Japan. The city was known for their movement, "Supporting Obama on Their Own."
Obama will take office and tackle the financial crisis, two wars and other tasks after his inauguration next January.
It may not be an overstatement that he, as a man who knows different cultures of Kenya, Indonesia and America (including that of Hawaii), was born to be an American leader of this age of globalization.
His wife, Michelle Robinson Obama, also graduated from Law School with the doctor's three years earlier than he did.
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October 17, 2008 |
| Harvard Art Museum receives major gift from Emily Rauh Pulitzer |
 Harvard University today (Oct. 17) announced that the Harvard Art Museum has received a gift of 31 major works of modern and contemporary art and $45 million from Harvard alumna Emily Rauh Pulitzer, a former Harvard Art Museum curator, longtime supporter and friend of the museum and of Harvard, and wife of the late Joseph Pulitzer Jr. The modern works include important paintings and sculptures by Brancusi, Derain, Giacometti, Lipchitz, Miró, Modigliani, Picasso, Rosso, and Vuillard. The contemporary art includes major works by di Suvero, Heizer, Judd, Lichtenstein, Nauman, Newman, Oldenburg, Serra, Shapiro, and Tuttle. This gift represents one of the most significant donations of works of art ever received by the museum. The financial gift is the single largest donation in the history of the Harvard Art Museum.
Read full Harvard Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/10.23/99-gift.html |
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October 17, 2008 |
| Largest Individual Gift in University's History |
 Engineer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss MBA ’65 has given Harvard University $125 million to create the Hansjörg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
Investigators at the Wyss Institute (pronounced “Vees”) will strive to uncover the engineering principles that govern living things, and use this knowledge to develop technology solutions for the most pressing healthcare and environmental issues facing humanity. Wyss’ gift is the largest individual gift in the University’s history.
See full article at URL below. |
| http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/engineering-technology/articles/hansjorg-wyss-gives-125-million-create-institute-biologically-inspir |
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September 30, 2008 |
| Harvard Panel on Financial Crisis: On-line video |
 See recorded video of panel held at Sanders Theatre on Sept. 30. Requires Real Player. Access at URL below. |
| http://post.harvard.edu/haa/html/index.shtml |
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September 27, 2008 |
| Message to Harvard Community from Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust |
Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
As the opening days of the new academic year remind us, things don't always happen quite according to plan.
First-year students in the College landed in Cambridge on an early September Saturday, just a little ahead of Tropical Storm Hanna. Courtesy of a malfunctioning electrical switch, they spent much of their first night at Harvard inhospitably displaced from Yard dorms gone dark. Clothes damp, roommates barely met, many of them congregated in the Science Center until the wee hours; a few of them even coaxed their slightly groggy president into a late-night poker game. Still, by the time of our sunlit opening exercises the next day, spirits se emed anything but soggy--and the electricity, whether measured in volts or in anticipation of things to come, was back in full force. To our entering freshmen, and to all of you who are newcomers to Harvard--students, faculty, and staff--thanks for joining a university community that I'm confident will bring you opportunities as energizing as the talents you bring to us.
We start the year in the midst of sobering times. Fierce storms from the tropics have been followed by seismic waves on Wall Street and now in Washington, where policymakers confront a set of financial challenges that many experts consider as unsettling as any our nation has faced in decades. These events will affect us, as an institution and as individuals, in ways we are only beginning to know.
As members of a learning enterprise more than 370 years old, one that has weathered all manner of storms, we can look forward to the year ahead with what I hope will be a shared appreciation for the remarkable resilience and creative power of universities in the face of unpredictability and change. They root us in our knowledge and experience of the past, keeping us attentive to the long term and offering a perspective on the future that we especially need in turbulent times. In calm or storm, they present us with opportunities to contribute what we can to a better, more humane, more intelligible world.
Some of us do our part through a devotion to improving human health or investigating climate change; others, by considering how law and policy can advance justice or by finding new meaning in timeless texts or great works of art; still others, by analyzing economic upheavals and devising means to address them. We each work and learn in different parts of Harvard--but all of us share an opportunity to demonstrate, through the imaginative pursuit of knowledge, why our universities embody society's most enduring investment in the future. Whether your Harvard ID is days or decades old, I welcome your partnership in that pursuit.
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We open new doors every autumn, but we open them especially wide this fall. In welcoming the Harvard College Class of 2012, we usher in a dramatic expansion of our financial aid programs. Through a series of reforms over the past few years, families with incomes up to $60,000 are no longer expected to contribute to the cost of their children's undergraduate education; families earning up to $180,000 will be asked to contribute just a modest fraction of their incomes (generally 10 percent or less); and grants have replaced loans for all undergraduates receiving aid. Harvard has long sought to attract the most talented and promising students, whatever their financial means. It remains a paramount priority to make tha t ideal real.
That is true not just in the College but across the University. The Medical School this fall initiates a new financial aid program, designed to reduce the cost of a four-year medical education by an average of $50,000 for families earning $120,000 or less. Newly entering JD students at the Law School can look forward to a tuition-free third year if they commit to at least five years of public service after graduation. Throughout the Schools we have substantially increased our investment in financial aid--by nearly 30 percent in the past three years alone. We will continue striving not only to enroll the very best students from across the economic spectrum, but also to ensure that the burden of excessive debt does not deter our graduates from pursuing careers reflecting their highest aspirations.
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This year also marks an important transition in our unfolding efforts to enhance undergraduate education. With the Faculty of Arts and Sciences having approved a new framework for general education in spring 2007, and with new curricular requirements due to take full effect for students entering in fall 2009, the challenge remains to infuse the framework with a robust set of inventive new courses as well as creative adaptations of existing ones. I know that our deans of the FAS and the College, Mike Smith and Evelynn Hammonds, see this as a focal point of the coming year--and I am grateful to the many faculty colleagues who have designed or are planning offerings in the new curriculum. I know, too, from summer disc ussions within the Council of Deans that there is broad enthusiasm for having undergraduate education at Harvard benefit more strongly from the faculty and academic resources of our graduate and professional schools.
Curricular change is in motion well beyond the College. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is launching interdisciplinary consortia to promote advanced study across traditional borders, while also introducing seminars for graduate students to partner with faculty in crafting new Gen Ed offerings for the College. The Business School, in commemorating its centennial, has undertaken a comprehensive evaluation of the state of MBA education, and the Design School is introducing a new master's concentration in sustainable design. The Divinity School has refashioned the curriculum for its two-year theology degree, while the Ed School is planning for a new advanced degree in educational leadership involving Kennedy and Business School colleagues. The Kennedy School, meanwhile, has teamed with the Business School to offer a new joint degree in government and business, and the Law School is entering year two of its most noteworthy curricular innovations in decades, including new first-year courses in legislative and regulatory s ystems and in international and comparative law. The Medical School's intensive strategic planning has yielded proposals for an array of educational reforms, while the School of Public Health this fall rolls out an alternative core curriculum for professional students featuring a more integrated, case-based approach to learning.
Our degree programs, in short, are in a state of creative fermentation. And a prime ingredient in the yeast is a concern for how students can take increasing advantage of experiences not only within individual departments or Schools but across them. That trend should draw added momentum from the prospect of coordinated academic calendars across the Schools, starting next fall.
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As these curricular innovations advance, we are pursuing a variety of improvements to our campus. The Law School's Northwest Corner Building, now under construction, will serve as a new hub of student life and learning. The Divinity School has created a campus green and remade Rockefeller Hall, itself newly green. A new graduate housing complex has opened along the Cha rles, and Radcliffe's fellows have a handsome new home in Byerly Hall.
More broadly, a University-wide committee led by Professor Lizabeth Cohen (History) and Dean Mohsen Mostafavi (Design) is exploring how to shape several new or reconfigured spaces in Cambridge to enliven our sense of community--spaces that can create natural opportunities for mingling, for quiet reflection over coffee, for impromptu conversations about the joys of reading Proust or the frontiers of nanoscience or the state, alas, of Tom Brady's left knee. Concurrently, Deans Smith and Hammonds have assembled a committee of faculty, students, and staff to think in fundamental ways about the role and purposes of our undergraduate Houses, whose character has helped define Harvard for more than 75 years. This review wi ll lay a programmatic foundation for a comprehensive renewal of the Houses, to assure that one of Harvard's proudest 20th-century innovations will serve us no less well in the 21st.
Of course, we continue to plan ambitiously for Allston, even as early construction work on the major science complex south of Western Avenue marks the first concrete step in translating our ambitions into realities. Much of our attention this year will focus on preparing a refined institutional master plan for our Allston properties, for submission to the City of Boston. This exercise, outlining aspects of our envisioned activities as well as proposed arrangements for streets and other infrastructure, is a requisite next step before we can undertake additional construction--one tha t will help provide a broad context for our continuing discussion of academic and programmatic priorities and for deeper analysis of financial parameters.
In the past year, as the groundbreaking for the science complex has perhaps made Allston opportunities seem increasingly real, there has emerged a rising interest among different parts of Harvard in the possibility of an Allston presence. We will need to take careful account of this expanding array of potential participants as we seek to imagine a configuration likely to yield the most vibrant mix for Allston and the best result for Harvard as a whole. Our Allston planning represents a venture for the long term, one that at each stage will call on us to balance forward motion with sustained flexibility. Ultimately, our aim is not a self-contained Allston campus; it is an expanded yet integrated Harvard, one where t he different precincts of our campus fruitfully connect with each other and their neighboring communities and where each blends elements both traditional and new. Someone recently remarked to me that the Charles should become like the Seine--coupling two distinctive banks of comparable vitality and importance. Paris we're not--but I very much like the image.
So, in the year to come we will watch as Stefan Behnisch's science complex begins to emerge--from what is now a cavernous hole in the ground into a state-of-the-art home for interdisciplinary work in stem cell science, bioengineering, and systems biology and a leading example of our commitment to sustainable design. And we will continue to plan for a future in Allston that embodies Harvard's highest academic aims, that fosters positive relations with our neighbors, and that grasps the opportunity to imagine our programs and their interactions anew.
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The Allston science complex is just one expression of our larger commitment to advancing education and research in science and engineering. We are fortunate, at such a time, to benefit from the leadership of the Harvard University Science and Engineering Committee, which, since its launch last year, has become an essential forum for assessing cross-faculty initiatives and investments. Meanwhile, the past year has brought the elevation of our Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences to the status of School, reflecting its growing importance and scope; the opening of the Northwest Laboratory building on Oxford Street, a boost for FAS-based science; the beginnings of a major new NIH-supported center to promote cli nical and translational science across our biomedical community, spurred by HMS Dean Jeff Flier and his colleagues; and the breathtaking new commitment of $400 million from Eli and Edythe Broad to endow the Broad Institute, a cooperative enterprise of Harvard and MIT that is demonstrating both the promise of genomics to transform medicine and the promise of collaboration to accelerate discovery. As we mark these and other developments, we should bear in mind the wise words of one close observer of the Harvard scene: our bridges rest on pillars, and we must continue to bolster those pillars as we envision new connections between them.
We must continue as well to nourish humanities and the arts, in the spirit of humane learning integral to all we do. A task force chaired by Stephen Greenblatt, the Cogan University Professor, will report later this year on its expansive inquiry into the role of the arts in liberal education and in the life of the University more broadly. Harvard has long been home to a dazzling variety of artistic talent and expression, but as an institution we have at times seemed to hold artistic practice and performance somewhat at arm's length from the academic enterprise. The task force promises to help us think in novel ways about the prospect of a closer embrace. Meanwhile, the activities of the Humanities Center, with Homi Bhabha as its intellectual impresario, are attracting an expanding circle of scholars from across Harvard for thought-provoking conversations on everything from terrorism to the tango. The American Repertory Theatre will soon welcome a new artistic director, Diane Paulus, a Harvard alumna known for both her acclaimed productions and her interest in enlivening the interactions between the A.R.T. and the larger University community. And, as the Fogg temporarily closes its doors, we can all look forward to a reconceived and renovated Harvard Art Museum on Quincy Street, with the first major steps to be taken this year toward realizing Renzo Piano's elegant design.
In the broad domain of the social sciences, preliminary discussions have begun on how different parts of Harvard might better share resources and profit from greater collaboration in topical areas of emergent interest--from changing cities to international development to aging and society, to name just a few. And in an era when ideas and people are quickening their movement across not just academic but geographic borders, we have the opportunity and obligation to think more strategically about how Harvard engages with societies around the world. This past March, I traveled to Shanghai for the global conference of the Harvard Alumni Association, and next March I look forward to welcomi ng our gathered alumni in South Africa. These events--each the source of enthusiastic interest among alumni and faculty alike--are just two among innumerable examples of an ever more international Harvard, as evident in the composition of our community, in the content of our research and teaching, and in the span of our engagements around the world. We are especially fortunate, amid this growing internationalism, to benefit from the magnificent generosity of David Rockefeller, Harvard College Class of 1936, whose historic $100 million gift announced last spring will in large part fund opportunities for undergraduate learning abroad.
Global climate change has emerged as one of the salient challenges of our time, and we have a rising responsibility to address that challenge both in what we study and in how we work and live. This summer, drawing on the thoughtful report of a task force chaired by Professor William Clark of the Kennedy School, I announced that Harvard will intensify its efforts to achieve major reductions in its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of a broader commitment to environmental sustainability. (See http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/faust/080708_greenhouse.html.) At the same time, as we seek to curtail our collective carbon footprint, we must consider how teaching and research across the Schools--building on the work of the University Center for the Environment and other key players--can help us better understand and confront the challenges of sustainability, energy, and environmental change not just on our own campus but well beyond. Every one of us has a stake in the outcome of these efforts--and a role to play in their success.
This year, Harvard will be preparing for its fall 2009 reaccreditation review, a process that takes place each decade and that will focus on the FAS, given the separate accreditation processes that exist for most of our Schools. I am grateful to Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science, for agreeing to serve as faculty chair for the self-study process that will precede the accreditation team's visit and its report to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
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For all our initiatives and plans, in the end we owe our progress to the talent, energy, and diverse perspectives of the people who form our community--which is to say, all of you. In the company of so extraordinary an assemblage of faculty, students, and staff, I am especially fortunate to be joined by a team of deans at once focused on their Schools and devoted to the larger university. Since arriving in Massachusetts Hall nearly 15 months ago, I have had the occasion to welcome new deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Mike Smith), the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Allan Brandt), and the College (Evelynn Hammonds), as well as the Design School (Mohsen Mostafavi), the Faculty of Medicine (Jeff Flier) , and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Barbara Grosz). Julio Frenk, Mexico's former Minister of Health, will succeed Barry Bloom at the School of Public Health come January, and Professor Frans Spaepen has stepped in as acting dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences while the search proceeds for Venky Narayanamurti's longer-term successor. Together they join David Ellwood at the Kennedy School, Bill Graham at the Divinity School, Elena Kagan at the Law School, Jay Light at the Business School, and Kathy McCartney at the School of Education, and Bruce Donoff at the School of Dental Medicine--along with our Provost, Steve Hyman--to form an academic leadership group that any university president would be immensely pleased to call her own.
Ed Forst, as Executive Vice President, is taking up a new role that will strengthen our central administrative capacity and help cultivate connective tissue across the Schools. Judy Singer, the Conant Professor of Education, is our new Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, and David Korn, former Dean of Stanford Medical School, will soon become our Vice Provost for Research. Christine Heenan will arrive in the coming days as our new Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs, at a moment when much is percolating in each of those areas, and Jane Mendillo has moved in as the new CEO of Harvard Management Company, to carry forward the expert management of our endowment during unus ually challenging financial times.
For each of these colleagues stepping in to a pre-existing role, there are large shoes to be filled. To each of their predecessors, from all of us: many, many thanks.
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One hundred years ago, Charles William Eliot, the nonpareil of Harvard presidents, began the last of his 40 academic years in office. As I look forward to just my second, I hope we can together accept Eliot's invitation to embrace the purposes that draw us here--"to observe keenly, to reason soundly, and to imagine vividly." With the sense of anticipation a new year brings, may we each take full advantage of all that Harvard is, while vividly imagining all it may become.
Sincerely,
Drew Gilpin Faust
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| http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/faust/080924_letter.html |
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September 26, 2008 |
| New education research and development laboratory at Harvard University |
 A new education research and development laboratory at Harvard University will identify and advance strategies to improve student achievement in America's public schools, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative.
The goal of the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University (EdLabs), funded in part by a $6 million grant from The Broad
Foundation, is to foster innovation and objective measurement of the effectiveness of urban K-12 school district programs and practices through rigorous research.
"The National Institutes of Health is the engine for scientific and medical research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency develops innovations in technology and security, but K-12 education has had no R&D agency that identifies and researches the most effective innovations in our public schools," said Eli Broad, entrepreneur businessman and founder of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations. "There are pockets of innovation in K-12 public education today - innovations such as high-performing charter schools like KIPP and student incentives that increase academic performance. But we need to do more. In our nine years of working with school districts around the country, we have identified the need for robust research and development to fuel the work of reform-minded education leaders and advance innovative practices. We believe that EdLabs is the R&D entity that will fulfill that need."
To jumpstart the $44 million, three-year research and development initiative, EdLabs will partner with three of the largest urban school systems in the country: New York City Department of Education, Chicago Public Schools, and the District of Columbia Public Schools. EdLabs will bring together top scholars from a broad range of academic fields and will connect them with its own R&D teams that will be embedded in these three school districts.
"America was built on innovation, yet there has been far too little of it in education even though we are not getting the results we need or that our children deserve," said New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. "EdLabs will encourage creative thinking to address the crisis in our classrooms and help us to understand what works and doesn't work when it comes to improving outcomes for our students. I applaud The Broad Foundation, Harvard University, and Dr. Roland Fryer for their commitment to this ground-breaking initiative."
"We are honored to be a part of this cutting-edge institute," said D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. "We believe that all children, regardless of background and circumstance, can achieve at the highest levels, and we want to ensure that our decisions at all levels are guided by the kind of robust data, analysis and innovative thinking EdLabs will provide."
The core work of EdLabs will include:
1. Building a core database of student level data to develop a detailed understanding of factors affecting student performance in Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C. EdLabs will use this new data to conduct rigorous empirical analyses to identify key leverage points for innovations.
2. Developing and implementing new ideas that will be piloted in schools in the three partner districts. EdLabs and the partner districts have already designed programs that will examine student motivation through student incentives. The programs are designed to investigate whether incentives change student behavior and attitudes toward academic achievement - and thus improve academic performance.
3. Evaluating existing programs and practices in the three partner school districts through a rigorous scientific lens to determine whether or not they are improving student achievement. EdLabs will also award a "Seal of Approval" for programs and interventions that work.
4. Disseminating research findings to key policy-makers and educators and quantifying the expected "student return from an investment" in a school or a district to help leaders direct their limited resources into high-return programs and initiatives.
EdLabs will be headed by Roland G. Fryer, Jr. (photo), who will also serve as lead researcher. A 30-year-old Harvard economics professor who is one of the youngest African-Americans to receive tenure at the prestigious university, Fryer has researched the issue of racial inequality for the past decade. He has published papers on topics such as the racial achievement gap, the causes and consequences of distinctively black names and affirmative action. Fryer was recently featured on CNN's series, "Black in America," and has been named by Fortune Magazine as one of America's "most influential minorities."
"If we aim to establish true equality of opportunity in education, we must be willing to take risks and explore innovative strategies," said Fryer. "The 'same-old' strategies have failed generations of students. There have been pockets of progress and beacons of hope, but not systematic changes in how we educate urban youth. Transformative thinking, along with a tough-minded, rigorous approach to designing and evaluating innovative education reforms, is essential if we want to truly improve. I would like to thank The Broad Foundation and Harvard University for supporting a long overdue initiative to apply the same scientific standards of research and analysis to education reform as is expected in fields like medicine and technological development."
In addition to a grant from The Broad Foundation, EdLabs will receive support from Harvard University, the three participating school districts and other foundations.
EdLabs will be housed administratively within the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. IQSS has helped EdLabs build the infrastructure it needs to make its research possible and will continue to play an administrative advisory role going forward.
For more information about the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University, please visit www.EdLabs.harvard.edu.
The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is a national venture philanthropy established by Edythe and Eli Broad, a renowned business leader who founded two Fortune 500 companies, SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home. Based in Los Angeles, The Broad Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition. The Broad Foundation's Internet address is www.broadfoundation.org.
( copyright Businesswire 2008)
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| http://www.pr-inside.com/new-education-r-amp-d-lab-aims-to-r827960.htm |
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September 17, 2008 |
| Kennedy School's New Concentration in International and Global Affairs |
 Beginning in the 2008-09 academic year, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University will offer a new and innovative concentration in International and Global Affairs (IGA) to Masters in Public Policy (MPP) students. The new concentration will provide intensive training to graduate students preparing for careers addressing international and global challenges and governance, including international security, human rights, energy security, environment and natural resources, public health, and information systems.
See full press release at URL below. |
| http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/press-releases/iga-concentration |
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August 29, 2008 |
| Harvard Magazine web site expanded |
 Please see the recently expanded website at harvardmagazine.com.
The site now features breaking news about Harvard, web-exclusive audio and visual content, as well as access to the magazine's complete editorial content plus 10 years of back issues.
Current cover article is:
Works and Woods--
Architecture and ecology in Japan
by Paul Gleason
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| www.harvardmagazine.com |
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August 29, 2008 |
| Online Course for Alumni |
 The HAA is excited to again offer Michael Sandel's "Justice" course t o alumni worldwide. View lectures online and interact with alumni on the course blog as you confront unanswerable and inescapable moral questions. Register now to participate in the global classroom experience that last year reconnected over 4000 alumni to Harvard. Past participants described the course as one of the most intellectually stimulating experiences of their lives.
This free course will feature:
• 24 web streamed or podcasted lectures viewed at your convenience
• Facilitated discussions for participating Harvard Club and Shared Interest Group (SIG) members
• Online office hours with Professor Sandel
• Course blog with discussion questions and polling
• Sandel's Justice: A Reader (available for purchase)
To register, or for more information, please visit http://post.harvard.edu/sandel.
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| http://post.harvard.edu/sandel |
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August 21, 2008 |
| Letter From Jorge Dominguez, Harvard Vice Provost for International Affairs |
 Dear International Harvard Club Officers,
The 2007-2008 academic year continued to provide great opportunities to meet with Harvard alumni in Monterrey, Shanghai, Beijing, Botswana, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Athens, Cypress, Milan, and Rome among other cities. It is always invigorating to speak with the global Harvard community to learn about and celebrate their achievements. Harvard alumni represent truly outstanding leadership around the world.
An increasingly international and diverse student body is critical to today's classroom. Therefore, I am delighted to make you aware of the "Zero to 10 Percent Standard" financial aid policy for Harvard College students for upper-middle-income families that became in effect on December 2007. Families with incomes above $120,000 and below $180,000 and with assets typical for these income levels will be asked to pay 10 percent of their incomes. For those with incomes below $120,000, the family contribution percentage will decline steadily from 10 percent, reaching zero for those with incomes at $60,000 and below. All the details are listed at: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-finaid.html
Harvard College will meet the full needs of every student, including international students, for all four years. Applicants should note that applying for financial aid will not jeopardize a student's chance for admission. The Financial Aid Office works with each family individually to ensure equal access to a Harvard College education. All financial aid from Harvard College is awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need - there are no academic, athletic or merit-based awards offered.
The Undergraduate Admissions Office always welcomes inquiries from alumni abroad, especially graduates of the College, who may wish to become involved in interviewing applicants. Depending on the country, interviewers are contacted directly by potential applicants or are asked by the Admissions Office to interview specific candidates. Regardless of whether a particular applicant is admitted, alumni interviewers value the opportunity to talk to accomplished local students and welcome the chance to stay current on undergraduate life in Cambridge. Attached is a statement from the Admissions Office on the role and importance of the interview in the admissions process. Interested alumni should contact Judy Partington, the International Admissions Administrator at jparting@fas.harvard.edu.
As new degrees might have been added and others have ceased to exist since you attended Harvard, attached is a comprehensive list of degrees granted by the University. This degree list might guide you in conversations with possible applicants to the University. Also, for your convenience, I am listing here some websites that I shared with the clubs last year that might be useful in your role as Harvard's ambassadors abroad, where you and your Club members are likely to receive inquiries about Harvard's admissions and financial aid policies:
Listing of all Harvard University Admission Offices:
http://www.harvard.edu/admissions/
Listing of Harvard University Financial Aid Offices by School:
Harvard College - http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/prospective_students/financial_aid.php
Harvard Business School - http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/financialaid.html
Harvard Graduate School of Design - http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/admissions/financial_aid/int_students.html
Harvard Divinity School - http://www.hds.harvard.edu/afa/financial_aid.html
Harvard School of Dental Medicine - http://www.hsdm.harvard.edu/asp-html/financial-aid.html
Harvard Graduate School of Education - http://www.gse.harvard.edu/admissions/financial_aid/index.html
John F. Kennedy School of Government - http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/financialaid/
Harvard Law School - http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/sfs/index.php
Harvard Medical School - http://hms.harvard.edu/admissions/default.asp?page=costs
Harvard School of Public Health - http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/admissions/student-financial-services/
American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training - http://www.amrep.org/iatt/pdf/finaid08.pdf
Harvard Extension School- http://www.extension.harvard.edu/2007-08/register/financial/finaid/
Another website I would like to make you aware of is 'Harvard Worldwide'. As Harvard faculty are involved in extensive global outreach and research, our office launched the 'Harvard Worldwide' website to try to capture all these activities in one source. We invite you to explore this site at http://www.worldwide.harvard.edu/iws/.
Last but not least, I would like to invite you to join President Faust, Harvard faculty and me at the 2009 HAA Global Series conference in Cape Town, South Africa between March 27th and 29th. The 2008 HAA Global Series conference in Shanghai was a great success with over 600 Harvard alumni in attendance from 31 countries and with all Harvard Schools represented. We anticipate another wonderful networking opportunity and intellectually stimulating weekend in South Africa. The conference will feature keynote speeches from renowned Harvard academics and regional leaders and will provide plenty of opportunities to re-connect with old friends and meet new alumni from around the world.
I hope you will find this information useful in your conversation with fellow alumni, club members, prospective students and their families. Thank you as always for your continued support to Harvard.
Please contact me (jorge_dominguez@harvard.edu) or the Office of International Alumni Affairs (sara_aske@harvard.edu) if you have questions or would like further information.
Sincerely,
Jorge I. Domínguez
Vice Provost for International Affairs
Antonio Madero Professor of Mexican and Latin American Politics and Economics
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| http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-finaid.html |
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August 21, 2008 |
| New website Harvard Worldwide |
 From a recent letter by Jorge Dominguez,Harvard Vice Provost for International Affairs:
"Another website I would like to make you aware of is ‘Harvard Worldwide’. As Harvard faculty are involved in extensive global outreach and research, our office launched the ‘Harvard Worldwide’ website to try to capture all these activities in one source. We invite you to explore this site at http://www.worldwide.harvard.edu/iws/." |
| http://www.worldwide.harvard.edu/iws/ |
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August 3, 2008 |
| Two K-School Graduates join the Fukuda Cabinet |
 Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has chosen 2 Kennedy School graduates for his new Cabinet.
Yoshimasa Hayashi, MPA '94, was appointed as defense minister. This is his first ministerial assignment. He will be in charge of extending the antiterrorism law that will expire in January 15th, 2009. The current law was
established on January 11th after the Lower House voted for the second time to overthrow the rejection by the opposition-controlled Upper House. (Japan supports international operations in Afghanistan under the law.)
Toshimitsu Motegi, MPP '83, will serve as State Minister in charge of Financial Services and Administrative Reform. With his international experiences, he will oversight the financial market in Japan and is expected to make it more flexible in order to compete against other Asian markets in
Singapore and Hong Kong.
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June 7, 2008 |
| Rowling casts spell at Afternoon Exercises |
 Call it magic, but the rain held off while Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling delivered the keynote address this afternoon (June 5) at Harvard University's annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
See full article in Harvard Gazette by Corydon Ireland, Harvard News Office |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/06.12/99-rowling.html |
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June 5, 2008 |
| Best Wishes to Class of 2008! |
 June 5 is commencement day. Congratulations to all graduates! |
| www.harvard.edu |
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June 2, 2008 |
| 'Conscience of Harvard' marks 40 years of ministry |
A theologian who has been called "the conscience of Harvard" drew hundreds of supporters yesterday to his home church, where he celebrated 40 years of ministry in a sanctuary where he is better known as a son of Plymouth. The special service, attended by Governor Deval Patrick, honored the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, pastor of Harvard College's Memorial Church and one of the most well-known professors at the Harvard Divinity School.
Story in June 2 Boston Globe by John C. Drake at URL below. Globe photo by Tom Herde.
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| http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/06/02/conscience_of_harvard_marks_40_years_of_ministry/ |
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May 31, 2008 |
| Pharr receives esteemed Japanese imperial decoration at ceremony |
 The government of Japan conferred on Susan J. Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, the decoration of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, at an official ceremony on May 15. The ceremony was held at the Brookline, Mass., residence of Yoichi Suzuki, consul general of Japan. Women became eligible to receive the decoration, which is one of the highest awarded by Japan to foreigners, only in 2003.
See full article in Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/05.29/07-pharr.html |
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May 28, 2008 |
| Next chapter for best seller |
 The owner of the Harvard Book Store, a landmark that has been in the same family for 76 years, has put the store up for sale.
See full article by David Mehegan of Boston Globe at URL below. Registration and/or subscription may be required to view.
Photographer not identified for photo displayed on Boston.com at http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2008/05/27/1211942941_5687.jpg |
| http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/05/28/next_chapter_for_best_seller/ |
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May 28, 2008 |
| Diane Paulus appointed artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre |
 Harvard University and the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) announced today (May 16) the appointment of Diane Paulus as artistic director. She will be the third artistic leader of the A.R.T., following founding director Robert Brustein (1980–2002) and Robert Woodruff (2002–07). Paulus is a critically acclaimed director of theater and opera; her productions have garnered multiple Obie awards, and she is one of the most highly regarded theater artists in the country. She will begin her responsibilities in the fall with the planning of the 2009-10 season.
See full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/05.22/99-ART.html |
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May 2, 2008 |
| Ho-Am Prize, ‘Korea’s Nobel,’ is awarded to BWH’s Charles Lee |
 Assistant Professor of Pathology Charles Lee of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has been named the recipient of the 2008 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine. Lee, who is also an associate member of the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, received the award for his discovery of widespread structural genomic variation in humans and his significant contributions to this new field of human genetics.
Often referred to as the Korean equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Ho-Am Prize honors scholars who have made “outstanding contributions in their field of study to the better welfare of mankind.” At the age of 38, Lee is the youngest recipient of the 2008 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine.
More in Harvard Gazette Online article at URL below. Photo by Stephanie Mitchell. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/04.24/03-lee.html |
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May 2, 2008 |
| Barbara Grosz named dean of Radcliffe Institute |
 Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been appointed the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, President Drew Faust announced today (April 28).
A prominent computer scientist with wide-ranging intellectual interests, Grosz has served as interim dean of the Radcliffe Institute since July 1, 2007, and earlier served as Radcliffe’s first dean of science from 2001 to 2007. She joined Harvard as Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science in 1986.
See full article in Harvard University Gazette Online at URL below. Photo by Tony Rinaldo. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/05.01/99-grosz.html |
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April 26, 2008 |
| Largest gift from an alumnus in Harvard's history |
David Rockefeller, a member of the Harvard College Class of 1936 and longtime University benefactor, has pledged $100 million to increase dramatically learning opportunities for Harvard undergraduates through international experiences and participation in the arts. Mr. Rockefeller's is the largest gift from an alumnus in Harvard's history.
Read full announcement at URL below.
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| http://post.harvard.edu/alumninews/html/rockefeller.html |
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April 18, 2008 |
| Former Divinity School Dean Krister Stendahl, 1921-2008 |
 Krister Stendahl, who played a crucial role in shaping the life and work of Harvard Divinity School, just as he was also a pioneer in the broader realm of ecumenical relations, died on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at the age of 86. He had been in failing health for several years.
See full obituary at http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/article_archive/stendahl.html |
| http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/article_archive/stendahl.html |
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April 15, 2008 |
| Alum Donations with Strings Attached |
 When Strings Are Attached, Quirky Gifts Can Limit Universities
Karen Arenson in April 13, 2008 NY Times describes how endowments made to universities with many conditions attached can cause strange and even humorous outcomes. For example a $2 million gift to Princeton in the 1970's to support Hellenic Studies is now worth $33 million, causing the university to offer a very deep selection of Greek language, culture and history courses.
Read the full article at URL below.
Registration and/or subscription may be required by the site. |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/education/13endow.html?ref=education |
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April 8, 2008 |
| Jeremy R. Knowles, 1935 - 2008 |
 Jeremy R. Knowles, an eminent chemist and longtime leader of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, died today (April 3) at his home in Cambridge, after a struggle with cancer. See full article at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/04.03/99-knowles.html |
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March 27, 2008 |
| Jane Mendillo to Lead Harvard Management Company |
 Jane Mendillo will become the new president and chief executive officer of Harvard Management Company (HMC), effective July 1, 2008, the HMC board of directors announced March 27.
Regarded as one of the nation’s premier endowment managers, Mendillo has served since February 2002 as the chief investment officer of Wellesley College. There she has built the college’s first investment office, directed the restructuring of its investment portfolio, and achieved substantial and sustained endowment growth through a period of rapidly changing market conditions.
Previously, Mendillo served as one of Harvard Management Company’s senior investment officers, rising to become HMC’s vice president of external investments and overseeing the investment of a portfolio that grew to $7 billion ― roughly a third of HMC’s assets then under management.
See full Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/04.04/99-hmc.html |
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March 23, 2008 |
| Hammonds Named Dean of Harvard College |
 Evelynn Hammonds, the University's senior vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity and the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed dean of Harvard College, effective June 1, 2008.
See full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/03.06/99-hammonds.html |
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March 9, 2008 |
| Biologist Venter will be visiting scholar at Origins of Life Initiative |
 J. Craig Venter, the visionary biologist and intellectual entrepreneur who was a leading figure in the decoding of the human genome, will join Harvard University as a visiting scholar at the University’s Origins of Life Initiative.
Venter, who left his last academic post in 1982, is founder and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute. He accepted the one-year appointment Feb. 22. It started March 1.
See article by Corydon Ireland in Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/03.06/03-venter.html |
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January 26, 2008 |
| Harvard Alumni Invited to Shanghai Events with President Faust March 28-30 |
 The 2008 HAA Global Series conference in Shanghai will bring alumni together to participate in academic symposia and learn about important initiatives shaping Harvard's future.
Details at URL below. |
| http://post.harvard.edu/harvard/globalseries/html/index.html |
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January 26, 2007 |
| A record applicant pool--Applications increase by 18 percent |
 In the first year without early action, more than 27,000 students have applied to Harvard for entrance next September, shattering the previous record of 22,955 set this past year. Harvard eliminated its early action program starting with the Class of 2012 because early admission programs tend to disadvantage students from modest economic backgrounds and often pressure students from across the economic spectrum to make premature college choices.
See full Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.07/99-admissions.html |
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January 18, 2008 |
| J.K. Rowling to speak at Commencement |
 J.K. Rowling, author of the world-renowned “Harry Potter” novels, will be the principal speaker during the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard University’s 357th Commencement on June 5, 2008.
See full Gazette article at URL below.
Photo courtesy J.K. Rowling |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.07/99-speaker.html |
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January 18, 2008 |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-gsas.html |
 Allan M. Brandt, who holds appointments in Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Medical School, has been named dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) at Harvard, effective Jan. 1.
See full article by Robert Mitchell in Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-gsas.html |
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December 29, 2007 |
| Princeton grad from Japan seeks sponsors for film on children in Brazil's slums |
 The Princeton Club of Japan has asked our Club to post the following request which certainly seems worthy of support:
My name is Soraya Umewaka. I am a Japanese-Lebanese documentary film-maker and social artist. I recently graduated from Princeton University '06 with a Labouisse fellowship to engage in documentary film-making in Brazil.
I recently came back to Japan to work on the post-production of my documentary project called 'Eu Sou Feliz' ('I am Happy'). This film captures the lives of seven talented individuals who charismatically tell the stories of what it means to live in the favelas (slums) and grapple with an unequal and stratified society.
An important aspect of this project is that I will have a substantial amount of the proceeds go to educational scholarships for youths and women in favelas, providing them with a life-changing opportunity. I am looking to partner with individuals/companies who would like to be part of the post-production and the distribution of this project to ensure that we can positively reach out to as many people as possible.
For more information, please e-mail me for a project proposal that outlines the objectives and synopsis of the film.
Thank you very much,
Soraya Umewaka
Social Artist, Princeton Alumni '06
streetwitness@gmail.com |
| http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/06/0327/2a.shtml |
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December 28, 2007 |
| Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack |
 Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Radcliffe class of ‘73 and Harvard honorary doctor of law in ‘83, was killed in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, on December 27 while campaigning for democracy. She was a woman of beauty, intelligence and, above all, courage.
Ms Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state and was twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988 and in 1993. Both times she was removed for alleged corruption by the president and was forced to live abroad.
Ms Bhutto returned home on October 18 after General Musharraf granted her an amnesty for corruption charges. On the very day of her return, she was attacked by 2 suicide bombers in Karachi. She, however, was brave enough to continue rallies, preparing for an election scheduled in January.
Ms Bhutto was born in Karachi on June 21, 1953, in a prestigious family, equivalent to the Kennedys in the US and the Gandhis in India, as the eldest child of former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Begum Nusrat Bhutto. Her father was also a victim of politics and was executed in 1979. Two of her politically active brothers were found dead in 1985 and 1996 respectively under mysterious circumstances.
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| http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2228796.stm |
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December 21, 2007 |
| Harvard announces sweeping middle-income initiative |
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