| NEWS ON THE INTERNET ABOUT HARVARD AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION |
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May 9, 2012 |
| Funds Sought to Plant Sakura on Harvard Campus |
 Harvard Club of Japan has been asked to inform our members about an effort to raise a small amount of money to fund the planting of commemorative cherry trees between Littauer and the Science Center on the Harvard campus. Please see the following materials from the organizers and reply directly if interested in supporting this worthy cause. Please do not contact Harvard Club of Japan which is not directly involved and cannot help with your inquiry on this project.
The Harvard Commemorative Cherry Tree
Planting Initiative 2012
While at Harvard University this academic year, we have had the privilege of participating in numerous
lectures and seminars taught by professors who have stimulated our intellectual curiosity and offered us both
inspiration and knowledge. Harvard University has provided us with an ideal environment for learning as well
as opportunities for making new friends whom we have come to truly admire and respect. As a token of our
profound appreciation to all those who have helped to make our time at Harvard University so memorable and
precious, we have decided organize the Harvard Commemorative Cherry Tree Planting Initiative to provide
cherry trees for the university campus.
The planting of some of the first Japanese cherry trees in the United States took place in 1912. The trees were a
gift to the United States from Japan in appreciation for the cooperation that Japan received during the
negotiation of the Treaty of Portsmouth. The trees were sent over from Tokyo 100 years ago and planted along
the Potomac River in Washington D.C., where they are still enjoyed by many today. To commemorate this
important exchange, “Centennial Celebration of the Gift of Trees” events are taking place in 2012 throughout
the United States. Like us, the negotiators of the Treaty of Portsmouth, President Theodore Roosevelt and
Foreign Minister Jūtaro Komura, were once fellow scholars at Harvard University.
The year 2012 is an especially significant one for Japan scholars and Japanese students at Harvard University.
While we celebrate the 375th anniversary of Harvard University’s founding, we also commemorate the steadfast
and heart-warming support of the university’s staff and students during the first year following the disastrous
March 11, 2011 East Japan Great Earthquake and tsunami. Just as the blooming of cherry trees every spring
along the Potomac attracts people toWashington D.C., we hope that our trees will be enjoyed by all who pass
through the Harvard campus, and will remind them of Japan. It is our sincere wish that these cherry trees will
serve not only as symbols of the beauty of Japanese nature but also of enduring friendships made at the
university.
Please join us in our project to provide funds for the planting of cherry trees on the Harvard University campus!
About the Initiative:
Location of trees: Near the Science Center (next to the Littauer Center).
Planting period: Late May or early June.
Donations: Anyone is welcome to donate! Donations start at $10.
Special Advisors:
Ezra F. Vogel, Professor Emeritus, Asia Center
Joseph S. Nye, Professor, Kennedy School
Susan J. Pharr, Professor, US-Japan Program
Andrew Gordon, Professor, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Hirotaka Takeuchi, Professor, Business School
Jon D. Mills, Manager, Asia Center
Project Leaders:
Hideshi Futori, (sakura_harvard@yahoo.co.jp), (615-609-6882), Research Associate, US-Japan Program
Mikio Shibata, Senior Fellow, Asia Center
Julia Yongue, Visiting Scholar, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Kotaro Sasamoto, Master in Business Administration Candidate and President of the Japanese Students’
Association of Harvard
Kimitoshi Sugiyama, Research Associate, US-Japan Program
The Harvard Commemorative Cherry Tree
Planting Initiative 2012
We earnestly hope that you will consider making a gift of $20 or more, but if you
contribute a minimum of $10, your name will be listed as a contributor. The list of
contributors will become a permanent part of the Harvard Archives, so that future
generations who visit Harvard who visit Harvard in 2112 can find your name in the
Harvard Archive as someone who helped make possible the splendid cherry trees
on the Harvard campus! If you provide your email address, we will email you a
picture of the trees, once they are planted.
Please send your name (in English)and your email address along with a check.
Minimum donation is $10.
Checks should be made payable to “The Harvard Commemorative Cherry Tree
Planting Initiative 2012.” Please mail your info with your donation to Hideshi Futori,
Harvard Program on US-Japan Relations, 61 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
sakura_harvard@yahoo.co.jp
Our goal is to raise $1,800. Any funds we are able to collect that exceed the $1,800
goal will be donated to the victims of March 11, 2011 East Japan Great Earthquake
and tsunami. |
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April 29, 2012 |
| Bo Guagua speaks out on Crimson |
 Bo Guagua, the son of Bo Xilai, issued a statement on the Harvard Crimson, countering negative media reports on him.
He is currently attending the university’s Kennedy School of Government.
He has been a focus of US and other media since his father was dismissed the Chongqing Communist party’s top position and his mother, Gu Kailai, became a suspect for the death of British businessman, Neil Heywood.
He said, “I am deeply concerned about the events surrounding my family.”
He has been known for his luxurious lifestyle. But he said the tuition and living expenses at the UK’s prestigious “public school” Harrow, Oxford University and Harvard University were funded exclusively by two sources – scholarship and savings of her mother, a well-established lawyer in China.
His father Bo Xilai was considered to join the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee this fall.
A daughter of China’s possible next president, Xi Jingping, is also attending Harvard University under pseudonym.
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| http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/4/24/bo-guagua-statement-to-the-crimson/ |
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April 9, 2012 |
| Harvard Professor Lippit Curates Ito Jakuchu exhibit in DC (through 4/29) |
 Harvard's professor of Japanese art Yukio Lippit has curated a show "Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Itō Jakuchū (1716–1800)" on exhibit from March 30–April 29, 2012 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
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| http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/jakuchuinfo.shtm |
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April 3, 2012 |
| Another Harvard grad contests World Bank chief seat |
.jpg) Supporters of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian finance minister and Harvard College class of ’77, are demanding the position of the World Bank chief go to an economist who has the knowledge and experience in the field of international development.
US President Barack Obama nominated Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim, MD ’86 and PhD ’91, for World Bank President, which has been traditionally occupied by an American, while the top position for the International Monetary Fund goes to an European.
But not only people in developing countries but also many others in developed countries are backing up Okonjo-Iweala. They stress that it is about time that a non-American expert takes the job in one of the leading financial institutions in the world.
The Economist says, “Its (the World Bank’s) boss needs experience in government, in economics and in finance (it is a bank, after all). He or she should have a broad record in development, too. Ms Okonjo-Iweala has all these attributes.” It also says, “By contrast Jim Yong Kim, the American public-health professor whom Barack Obama wants to impose on the bank, has at most one.”
The magazine says, “if there is one thing the world has discovered about poverty reduction in the past 15 years, it is that development is not something rich countries do to poor ones. It is something poor countries manage for themselves, mainly by the sort of policies that Ms Okonjo-Iweala has pursued with some success in Nigeria.”
The Financial Times says, “Having an African woman at the helm of the world’s leading development institution would send a strong signal both to developing and developed countries. … In this less than ideal world, Mr Kim’s appointment seems inevitable. But if the Bank’s shareholders wanted the best president, they would opt for Ms Okonjo-Iweala.”
Okonjo-Iweala was educated at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. in 1977, and earned her Ph.D. in regional economic development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981. Her eldest son, Onyinye Iweala, received her Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from Harvard University in 2008 and graduated Harvard Medical School in 2010.
The third candidate is Colombia’s José Antonio Ocampo. The World Bank board will make its final decision on April 16.
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| http://www.economist.com/node/21551490?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/hatsofftongozi |
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March 24, 2012 |
| Club Hosts HAA Asia Club Leaders Conference in Kyoto |
 Harvard's Vice Provost for International Affairs Jorge Dominguez (photo), Professor Shigehisa Kuriyama, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Associate Director Ted Gilman, and Harvard Alumni Association Director of Clubs and Special Interest Groups Jennifer Flynn joined leaders of Harvard Clubs from throughout Asia including ten directors and members of the Harvard Club of Japan for a conference in Kyoto March 9-11. Weekend activities included lectures, sharing of best practices in club administration and sightseeing in Kyoto. |
| http://alumni.harvard.edu/ |
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March 25, 2012 |
| Obama names Jim Kim for World Bank chief candidate |
 President Barack Obama has chosen Jim Yong Kim, MD ’86 and PhD ’91 in anthropology, for a candidate of the next president of the World Bank. With approval of the members, he is expected to succeed Robert Zeollick who will end his 5-year term on June 30. Since the US holding the most votes at the bank, the ballot is most likely to be a formality.
The 52-year-old Korean American physician is a leading figure in global health. He is a pioneer in treating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in the developing world, and served as director of the World Health Organization’s department of HIV/AIDS. He co-founded the global health organization Partners in Health.
Dr. Kim taught at Harvard Medical School since 1993 and became a chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He was active as chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.[5][6]
The Seoul-born scholar is the first Asian American head of an Ivy League school, Dartmouth College, in 2009.
Once his nomination was approved, two of the major international organizations will be led by Asian (South Korean) born Harvard graduates -- the United Nations by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, MPA ’85 of Kennedy School and the World Bank by Dr. Kim.
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| http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/03/jim-yong-kim-nominated-to-lead-world-bank |
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February 25, 2012 |
| Past HCJ speaker Soraya Umewaka to show new film in Shibuya |
 Documentary filmmaker, Soraya Umewaka will be presenting her Brazilian documentary film 'I am Happy' ('Eu Sou Feliz') at Shibuya's Uplink Cinema on February 25th (Sat) and February 26th (Sun).
Both days will have screenings at 4pm and 7pm with Q&A, live samba music and capoeira performance. This documentary was made possible with the support of Princeton University's Labouisse Fellowship. The documentary will have both English and Japanese subtitles.
Address: Totsune Building 1st floor Udagawa chou 37-18 Shibuya-ku
Advanced tickets: 1500 yen
Tickets at the door: 2000 yen
Please contact Soraya directly for advanced tickets: streetwitness@gmail.com
Synopsis: In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, graffiti artists make a living through art rather than crime; samba dancers rehearse for hours in order to have a better life; in-house-maids toil away during the week in wealthy homes of the city's south side; and military police combat favela crime with minimal resources. Despite having to face social and economic problems, these individuals persevere by creating their own brand of happiness - a survival tool that is closely intertwined with their psychological wellbeing. What is their perception of happiness?
Is happiness a state of mind or a fleeting moment in time?
This documentary has premiered at international film festivals and will tour around the world with National Geographic this year.
www.streetwitnessproductions.com
See trailer for the film at URL below.
渋谷のUplink映画館で特別上映会ブラジルのドキュメンタリー「私は幸せ」。上映後には映画監督 梅若ソラヤのトーク、ライブのサンバ音楽とカポエイラのパフォーマンス。梅若ソラヤはプリンストンのラボイース奨学金を２００６年に受賞しこのドキュメンタリーを完成した。
日・時：２月２５日（４時と７時） ２月２６日（４時と７時）
場所：渋谷区宇田川町37-18 トツネビル１階
日本語と英語の字幕あり。
ストーリー：
リオデジャネイロのスラムで、グラフィティーアーティ ストは、犯罪ではなく芸術で生計を立て、サンバのダ ンサーは、より良い生活をしようと何時間もリハーサ ルをし、メイドは、市の南側の裕福な家庭で、一週間 を通してせっせと働く。そして憲兵は最小限の予算で スラムの犯罪と戦う。社会的、経済的問題に直面しな ければならないにも関わらず、これらの人々はそれぞ れ、自分自身の幸せを創り出そうと必死に頑張る。そ れは彼らの精神的な幸福と密接に絡み合った、生き残るための手段なのです。
www.streetwitnessproductions.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw8viu5n33I （予告編）
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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw8viu5n33I |
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January 26, 2012 |
| Panel "Succession in North Korea: Perspectives from Harvard" |
 Andrew Gordon, Director of the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, moderated a panel titled "Succession in North Korea: Perspectives from Harvard" with Carter Eckert, Mark Kramer, and Anthony Saich. “Everyone wants stability,” said Gordon, summing up views from the neighboring states.
See full Harvard Gazette article by Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer, at URL below. Photo from AP. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/01/north-korea-country-behind-a-curtain/#.Tx9OToANdrg.email |
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December 23, 2011 |
| Japanese Studies Post-doctoral Fellowship Offered by RIJS |
 Japanese Studies Post-doctoral Fellowship
The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies announces a special post-doctoral
fellowship for the 2012-2013 academic year, for a recent PhD in any field of
Japanese studies, with extensive expertise in the digital humanities or qualitative
digital data management in the social sciences. The fellow will be expected to
devote half-time to his or her own research project, and half-time to the
management of the Digital Archive of Japan's 2011 disasters, as described
below. Applicants should meet the requirements for the regular post-doctoral
fellowship of the Institute
(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/fellowships/postdoctoral.html) and supply the
same application materials, with the addition of a separate statement describing
the applicant's skills and experience relevant to working with digital media, and
the name of one reference able to comment on these qualifications. The
application deadline is March 1, 2012. This will be a 12 month fellowship,
commencing on July 1, 2012, and the fellowship amount will be $60,000.
The project manager of the digital archive will be responsible for overseeing the
maintenance and development of the Digital Archive of Japan's 2011 Disasters
project (http://jdarchive.org). Tasks include working with project developers as
well as both Harvard based and outside technology partners to improve the
functionality and expand the materials of the archive; help organize and lead
workshops and other events to explore potential uses of the archive by
researchers; and, in close collaboration with project partners in Japan, work to
secure the long-term maintenance of the archive and its necessary infrastructure.
A strong working knowledge of Japanese and English languages is required.
While the position will not require any direct coding, candidates for the position
must be able to work closely with programmers and designers employing a
variety of web technologies and programming languages, be able to understand
and evaluate their work, and have the ability to effectively communicate between
technical and non-technical project collaborators. An ideal candidate will have
had experience designing and hosting websites (including a familiarity with
HTML, CSS, and Javascript), maintaining online databases (MySQL or
PostgreSQL), some experience coding for the web (PHP or any other web
scripting language), experience working with Git code repositories or other
version control system, and understand the principles behind the functioning of
web APIs. |
| http://jdarchive.org |
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December 8, 2011 |
| Longtime Harvard Football Coach Restic Dies at Age 85 |
 Joe Restic was Harvard's head football coach for 23 seasons from 1971-93, leading the Crimson to five Ivy League championships and a 117-97-6 record. He retired as the winningest coach in school history ― a distinction he held until this fall, when he was surpassed by current coach Tim Murphy. See Gocrimson.com article at URL below. Illustration from gocrimson.com site. |
| http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/fball/2011-12/releases/20111209edq2mt |
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November 18, 2011 |
| Harvard's i-lab opens |
 When Mark Zuckerberg returned to Harvard earlier this month to recruit for Facebook, there was one stop he added to his schedule ― and it wasn’t his old Kirkland House dorm. Rather, Zuckerberg made an unexpected detour to visit the new Harvard Innovation Lab, or i-lab.
See full Harvard Gazette article at URL below.
Thanks to our August 2011 speaker HBS Professor Emeritus Steven Wheelwright for letting us know about the opening.
Photo by Kris Snibbe, Harvard Staff Photographer |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/11/introducing-the-i-lab/ |
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November 23, 2011 |
| Very diverse pool of 4,245 applicants applies Early Action |
 4,245 students applied for admission to the Class of 2016 by Early Action which was reinstated this year. Applicants will receive replies on December 15th. Full details in the Harvard Gazette article at URL below. Photo by Harvard staff Photographer Rose Lincoln. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/11/early-action-returns-2/ |
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November 19, 2011 |
| Physics Experiment by Harvard and Yale Students Suggests Slight Tilt in Earth |
 A joint physics experiment by Harvard and Yale was conducted today in New Haven. Undergraduate male students from both universities were used as subjects in what was intended to be a routine replication of earlier work using colliding bodies to prove that the earth is precisely balanced. However when the experiment was actually conducted at the Yale Bowl on Saturday November 19th the results were quite lopsided in one direction, with the experimental measuring device, a conical object made from the species Sus domesticus favoring the Yale end zone side rather than the Harvard end zone side at a quite statistically significant ratio of 45:7
Since the findings are quite recent a full interpretation has not been published yet but a description of the experiment in the Harvard Crimson can be seen at the URL below.
Photo by Robert L. Ruffins of Harvard Crimson. |
| http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/11/19/harvard-yale-football-thegame/ |
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November 4, 2011 |
| New Book by Ezra Vogel |
 Perhaps no one in the 20th century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. Once described by Mao Zedong as a “needle inside a ball of cotton,” Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China’s radical transformation in the late 20th century.
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China is an important new work many years in the making from Ezra Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University and much beloved by many members of HCJ. |
| http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_4?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ezra+vogel&sprefix=ezra |
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October 29, 2011 |
| Temakizushi party in Cambridge for Japanese undergrads at Harvard |
 On October 29th current undergrads from Japan as well as a few GSAS grad students and US-Japan Program Fellows gathered for a temakizushi party at the Cambridge residence of HCJ President Carl Kay and Yoko Kay. |
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October 7, 2011 |
| Sec. of State Hillary Clinton on Increasing Japanese Enrollment at US Colleges |
 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the keynote speech at the US-Japan Council conference on October 7th. Her remarks about education issues are quoted below. A video of her entire 20 minute speech can be seen at the URL below.
For all the fundamentals that are already in place, however, we cannot rest. We have to keep building and looking for new opportunities. And we do that issue by issue and person by person. And I must say that for us in the State Department, few opportunities deliver the lifelong impressions and friendships as sending our young people to each other’s country to learn languages and cultures. And we are committed to ensuring that even more young people have that opportunity. More than 35,000 people have participated in exchange programs sponsored by our two governments, programs like the Fulbright and the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, known as JET. More than 750 officials have taken part in government exchanges, and nearly 4,000 Japanese professionals have taken part in the International Visitor Leadership Program, including four prime ministers, a Nobel laureate, a best-selling author, and many thousands more.
The simple truth is that these exchanges attract remarkable people and give them a global perspective. Japan’s first-ever female defense minister – you knew I’d have to get that in – is an alumnae of the U.S. International Visitor Leadership Program, and no less than four Nobel laureates from Japan are also Fulbright alums, and the CEO of Rakuten, whom I just met, who will be speaking from this very podium today, is a Harvard graduate.
So although these ties have already benefited both of our nations, they are not self-sustaining. We have to continue to invest in them. And I’m a little concerned, which is why I wanted to raise this with all of you. As recently as 1997, Japan sent more students than any other country in the world to study in America. Today, Japan ranks sixth. In the last 14 years, the number of Japanese students studying in America has dropped by almost 50 percent. And we are committed to doing whatever it takes to try to reverse this trend. So we are redoubling our efforts to connect Japanese youth with American universities. We’re establishing new Educational USA Advising Centers throughout Japan to explain to Japanese students how to win admission and financial assistance. We are working to remind a new generation of Japanese business leaders how valuable it is to have employees who know both of our cultures. And we are mobilizing Americans in the JET network to convince more students to study in America. And in a tough budget environment, we are fighting to maintain the funding for our flagship programs, including the Fulbright program, which will send 100 talented Japanese and Americans to learn each other’s cultures in 2012. We are providing scholarships to the American Field Service and other organizations so that students from the prefectures hardest hit by the tsunami can spend part of next summer in America. And we are encouraging more Americans to study abroad in Japan, and we’re pleased that this number rose to more than 5,700 this past year. |
| http://secretaryclinton.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-at-the-us-japan-council/ |
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October 23, 2011 |
| Harvard Varsity Wins Head of the Charles Regatta for First Time in 34 Years |
 For the first time in 34 years, the Harvard heavyweight men’s crew won the Championship Eight event at the Head of the Charles Regatta. It was Harvard’s third victory in this event, which has been dominated in recent years by national-team crews. (Previous wins came in 1969 and 1977.)
See full Harvard Magazine article at URL below. Photo by Harvard Athletic Communications Office. |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/10/harvard-varsity-wins-head-of-the-charles-regatta |
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October 11, 2011 |
| Sirleaf wins Nobel Peace Prize |
 Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state and a Harvard Kennedy School alumna, has won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. She shares the award with Leymah Gbowee, an African peace activist whose work helped to end the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, and Tawakul Karman, a journalist and human rights activist who has been a major player in the effort to topple Yemen’s authoritarian regime.
Ms. Sirleaf has Mstr in Public Administration in 1971 and awarded the university’s honorary degree in 2011.
Last spring, Sirleaf was Harvard’s 360th Commencement speaker.
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| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/10/sirleaf-wins-nobel-peace-prize/ |
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September 28, 2011 |
| Harvard Endowment Rises $4.4 Billion to $32 Billion |
 Harvard Endowment Rises $4.4 Billion to $32 Billion
Endowment valued at $32 billion as of June 30, up $4.4 billion (16 percent) from $27.6 billion a year earlier.
Harvard Management Company records 21.4 percent investment return on endowment assets during fiscal year 2011.
All asset categories yield positive returns.
Harvard’s performance narrowly exceeds its market benchmarks and the principal measure of large endowments’ returns.
Investment managers caution about impact of recent volatile markets and adverse economic conditions on future returns.
See full Sept 22 2011 Harvard Magazine article at URL below.
Photograph of Harvard Management Company president and CEO Jane Mendillo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard News Office |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/09/harvard-endowment-rises-to-32-billion?utm_source=university&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=September%2B2011%2BNews%2BUpdate |
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September 16, 2011 |
| Forum “Recovery and Reconstruction in Japan, Harvard Reports from the Field” |
 A forum “Recovery and Reconstruction in Japan, Harvard Reports from the Field” was held on campus on September 16th. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies sponsored the presentations with the Weatherhead Center Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. See Harvard Gazette article at URL below. Photo by Harvard Staff Photographer Justin Ide. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/09/despair-in-japan/ |
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August 27, 2011 |
| Program in Japan Led by Ryosuke Kobayashi '13 Featured in Economist |
 Harvard College Japan Initiative Liberal Arts Beyond Borders summer program for Japanese high school students is featured in an August 27th article in the Economist. Full article at URL link below. |
| http://www.economist.com/node/21526941 |
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August 26, 2011 |
| 25 Years in Harvard Square What’s changed, what hasn’t, and why |
 In the September-October 2011 "Harvard 375th Anniversary Issue" of Harvard Magazine, Nell Porter Brown writes about change and continuity in Harvard Square, a palce well known to all Harvard alumni. See full article at URL below. Photo by Stu Rosner. |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/09/25-year-retrospective-on-harvard-square |
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July 21, 2011 |
| Heavyweight crew captures Prince Albert Cup |
 HENLEY-ON-THAMES, England ― Four from Harvard’s heavyweight crew team defeated Oxford Brookes University to win the Prince Albert Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta on Sunday (July 3) on the River Thames. The winning oarsmen were Peter Scholle, Justin Mundt, Benjamin French, and JP Hogan. The boat was coxed by David Fuller.
For the second straight day, the Crimson four trailed through the Barrier and Fawley splits but came from behind to win. This time, Harvard came back and won by a wider margin of 1.75 lengths. Its time of 6:58 was just one second off its event-record mark from Saturday. Each of its splits was one second behind its Saturday pace as well.
See full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/07/winning-across-the-pond/?utm_source=alumniaffairs&utm_medium=harvardmonthlyemail&utm_campaign=july11 |
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July 21, 2011 |
| New facility will unite Harvard Art Museums under a single roof |
 When the Harvard Art Museums’ newly renovated and expanded facility reopens, probably in late 2013, it will better realize the dream of all those ― art scholars and admirers alike ― who envision Harvard’s dynamic collections operating in perfect tandem.
Once the project at 32 Quincy St. is complete, visitors for the first time will be able to experience the University’s three distinct art museums under one roof. The new project will bring together the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler museums on one site, increasing accessibility to the collections, enhancing curatorial collaboration, and further developing the role of the museums in Harvard’s undergraduate curriculum.
see full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/06/when-three-is-also-one/?utm_source=alumniaffairs&utm_medium=harvardmonthlyemail&utm_campaign=july11 |
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June 19, 2011 |
| Allston Development Plans Rescaled And To Include Third-Party Developers |
 Harvard today announced a major new set of recommendations for development of its land holdings in Allston that involves constructing a health and life sciences center and envisions partnerships with third-party developers to construct new housing, retail establishments, and a business enterprise research campus, as well as a hotel and conference center in a kind of spine along Western Avenue.
See full story in Harvard Magazine at URL below. |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/06/major-new-allston-plan-announced |
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June 13, 2011 |
| Academic Year-End Message from President Faust |
 Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
Spring, at least the part that doesn't require an umbrella, was stubbornly slow to arrive this year in Cambridge―but it showed up just in time for a resplendent Commencement, and for the best-attended alumni reunions in memory. Now that our festive rites of passage have launched some 7,200 graduates on new adventures, I find myself reflecting on an academic year of significant passages, as well as emerging new ventures, for Harvard as a whole.
We say farewell to our provost, Steve Hyman, who has served the University with exceptional distinction and devotion this past decade, and we welcome his successor, Alan Garber, who will take up his duties in the fall. We announced a set of historic changes to the composition and practices of the Harvard Corporation, including the appointment of three new members who will start in July. We signed a groundbreaking agreement with the Navy to bring the Reserve Officers' Training Corps back to campus for the first time in four decades. We have guided the initial cohort of students through the first year of the University's newest degree program, an innovative multidisciplinary program in educational leadership. We are carrying forward a major reorganization of the Harvard Library, resetting one of Harvard's jewels for a new era. We are progressing through a transformation of our art museums; at the same time, we are nearing completion of a new cornerstone building for the Law School campus. And we mourned the loss of Professor Peter Gomes, who for more than 40 years did so much to enrich Harvard's spiritual life, and whose memory will long continue to remind us of the humane ideals that knit us together.
If it was an academic year of notable passages, it also was one of values affirmed, aspirations advanced, and opportunities envisioned. We have sustained our strong commitment to generous financial aid, intended to bring the very best students to Harvard, amid still-challenging economic circumstances. We have continued to expand Harvard's international reach, which is evident in the boundless globe-trotting of thousands of our students and faculty, not to mention the stamps from seven countries that are fresh on my own passport since a year ago. We have launched the Harvard Innovation Lab, intended to catalyze a range of entrepreneurial opportunities for students, faculty, and members of the broader community. We have vigorously pursued initiatives in science and engineering, and in interdisciplinary domains such as global health and energy and the environment, while celebrating the dedication of the Mahindra Humanities Center and fully embracing the arts inside the classroom as well as out. And we have pushed ahead with the first stage of a massive undertaking to renew our undergraduate Houses, with the reorientation of our long-term planning for Harvard’s future in Allston, and with the consideration of emerging priorities for our coming University campaign.
This October we will celebrate the 375th anniversary of Harvard's founding as the first college in a new world. Helping to imagine the world anew remains at the heart of what we do. For now, I hope the accompanying images will give you a more vivid sense of the lively spirit, intellectual passion, and significant progress of this past academic year.
With warmest wishes and many thanks,
Drew Faust
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June 2, 2011 |
| New members of Harvard Corporation |
 In its first expansion in more than three centuries, the Harvard Corporation will add three new members this July: a distinguished university president soon stepping down from his post, a leading computer scientist and former president of the University’s Board of Overseers, and an admired business and civic leader widely active in Harvard alumni affairs. Full article in May 25th Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/05/three-to-join-harvard-corporation/ |
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June 2, 2011 |
| QUAKE RELIEF GROUP TRIP TO ISHINOMAKI IN ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS LEADERS JUNE 2-5 |
 EARTHQUAKE RELIEF GROUP TRIP TO ISHINOMAKI IN ENGLISH
FOR FOREIGN & JAPANESE BUSINESS LEADERS
JUNE 2-5, 2011
Peace Boat Japan, a leader in NGO disaster relief, has generously organized a special package relief tour for foreign and Japanese business leaders to volunteer as a group to help disaster victims in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in Tohoku. The group departs Thursday afternoon, June 2, and returns early evening Sunday, June 5 (so basically only one day of work is missed).
Peace Boat’s special group package takes care of all the logistics: shinkansen tickets, chartered bus, simple ryokan accommodations, volunteer insurance, help with food arrangements, and arrangement of meaningful relief work in Ishinomaki. We especially need interpreters who can translate for one of the 5-person work groups.
Participants only need bring rain gear/boots and a willingness to work--everything else will be taken care of! This group opportunity is a rare chance for active business leaders (non-Japanese and Japanese, women and men and spouses over age 20) to understand and contribute to the relief effort in Tohoku! They need help now! Let's do it! Limited Space: only one bus is going. First come, first served.
If you are interested, email David Slater (dhslater@gmail.com) for a more detailed information sheet.
**You must attend the information/orientation session on Monday the 23rd in order to go on the trip!**
Free Info Session, Experience Share, and Orientation in English:
***Volunteer Orientation is required to join Peace Boat Trip***:
May 23, 7-9pm, Wesley Center Floor 2, near Omotesando Stn./Kotto Doori on Roppongi Doori, Address: Minami-Aoyama 南青山6-10-1, MAP: http://www.en.wesleycenterjp.com/facilities.html
Please Trip bring payment in cash to Orientation.
TRIP: Thursday 5pm--Sunday evening, June 2, 3, 4, 5: Thursday 5pm meet at Shinkansen; Friday and Saturday: muddy relief work; Sunday, touring nearby sites, work at an evacuation center, etc.
Estimated Cost: JPY 98,000 per person for 4 days―all inclusive, travel, lodging and food (though costs can be reduced by opting not to stay at the ryokan).
Please bring payment in cash to Orientation---this is a disaster situation, and we do not have a good system of intermediate payment to Tohoku vendors, so we need to pay them directly in cash..
Limited space: We plan to only have one bus, so first come, first served.
Registration: If you are an ACCJ member, go online to ACCJ Events Hall under May 23 or June 2. Otherwise email Tish Robinson: tishintokyo@gmail.com or David Slater: dhslater@gmail.com. Official registration for the Group Relief Trip is not complete until you attend an Orientation Session, and your full payment is received, preferably in cash at the Orientation Session May 23.
Questions? Please email David H. Slater: dhslater@gmail.com or Tish Robinson: tishintokyo@gmail.com
About Peace Boat: For more information about Peace Boat, go to: http://www.peaceboat.org/english/content/documents/PB-Tohoku-kanto_Relief-29.pdf
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| http://www.peaceboat.org/english/content/documents/PB-Tohoku-kanto_Relief-29.pdf |
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May 16, 2011 |
| Struggles and Relief Efforts Continue in Tohoku |
 Recent photo (click on photo for larger view) taken by ASIJ student Mark McNeill during a volunteer relief trip to Tohoku evokes the grim mood that remains reality for many survivors of the 3-11 disasters.
Please donate to Grace City Church Tokyo, one of the relief organizations supported by the Harvard Club of Japan, at donation page URL below. |
| http://www.spendyourself.org/help/give/ |
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May 16, 2011 |
| Deadline TODAY May 16 for Keio Fukuzawa Bunmei Juku leadership program |
 The Keio Fukuzawa Bunmei Juku (“FBJ”) is an interdisciplinary program of Keio
University that was initiated in April 2009. The FBJ is a leadership program that
demands the active involvement of its participants - a wide range of students and
concerned people in the working world - in open and vigorous dialogue about
current events and issues. It is hoped that the program will help to cultivate the
domestic leaders needed by Japan to respond to the challenges of globalization and
in reaffirming the standing of Japan in the international community.
Program will take place Saturdays in late May and June.
Please contact Tom Dreves ASAP at t.dreves@dreves-law.jp |
| http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=1671948973336 |
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May 5, 2011 |
| Announcing Digital Archive of Japan's 2011 Disaster web site |
 The Digital Archive of Japan's 2011 Disasters project is part of a growing effort to record and archive the communications after, and responses to, the disaster. We welcome recommendations of materials for inclusion in the archive.
In addition to Japanese materials, we welcome content in English, Chinese, and Korean. We hope to include material on the regional and global reaction, as well as information about foreign nationals living/studying in Japan.
We are actively developing the means to harvest relevant social media in cooperation with our partners but have also established two methods that allow anyone to nominate materials for inclusion in the archive:
* Web Submission - You may directly submit links to online material you wish to nominate for inclusion in the digital archive through an online web form. We also offer a bookmarklet for fast and simple submission of links for consideration.
* submit@jdarchive.org - You may also submit links to online materials, as well as relevant email correspondence (such as reports circulated by people in affected areas of Japan) directly by email. In the email, please include as much contextual information as possible (e.g., who created the record, when, where, and so forth). Due to the high volume of submissions, we cannot respond to these contributions individually.
We will be working to make this information widely available for long-term analysis of the disasters and their aftermaths.
The digital archive is an initiative of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University and is supervised by Professors Theodore C. Bestor, Andrew Gordon (Director), Helen Hardacre, and Susan J.
Pharr.
It is being created in collaboration with various programs at Harvard, including metaLAB, the Harvard University Library, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA), Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS), and beyond Harvard with the Internet Archive, National Diet Library, the NCC (North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources), the EASIANTH and H-Japan listservs, and other networks.
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| http://jdarchive.org |
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April 23, 2011 |
| Harvard Earth Day Panel on Tohoku Featuring Prof. Sandel Now Viewable Online |
 Major Earth Day Panel on Japan Disasters, featuring Professor Michael Sandel, Now Viewable Online
EARTH DAY FOR JAPAN
Panel: Interdisciplinary Symposium on Japan Disaster Response and Future Assessment
Keynote Speaker: MICHAEL J. SANDEL, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, Harvard University
Moderator: ANDREW GORDON, Director, Reischauer Institute, and Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University
Discussants:
STEPHANIE ROSBOROUGH, Instructor in Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
OLLI HEINONEN, Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center and former deputy director IAEA
MIHO MAZEREEUW, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Hosted by Harvard for Japan as part of U for Japan and co-sponsored by the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Reischauer Institute
The webcast is now posted at:
http://ims.fas.harvard.edu/video/japandisaster20110422.html. Other campus lectures/panels on the earthquake and aftermath can be viewed at:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/about/earthquake/eventswebcast.html.
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| http://ims.fas.harvard.edu/video/japandisaster20110422.html |
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April 18, 2011 |
| Harvard For Japan at Boston Marathon |
 Harvard students promoting awareness of relief efforts in Japan used the occasion of the Boston Marathon to promote the cause. The Harvard Club of Japan salutes their volunteer efforts. The marathon on Monday 18th kicked off a week of Japan-focused activities on campus which follows an earlier week of events, also student led, from March 21-26. $45,000 have been raised so far by these activities.
See Yomirui article (Japanese) at URL below.
Marathon action photo by Victah Sailer www.photorun.net |
| http://harvardforjapan.fas.harvard.edu/yomiuri-shimbun-article/ |
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April 18, 2011 |
| Relief for Japan Week on Campus April 18-22 |
 Relief for Japan Week (4/18-22)
Harvard for Japan has organized another week of events on campus and in Boston this week.
MONDAY (April 18)
All day Support at Boston Marathon
Harvard for Japan will collect messages and distribute bracelets to runners
TUESDAY (April 19)
5-8pm HUHDS Themed Dinner for Japan
All undergraduate dining halls
WEDNESDAY (April 20)
7:30pm Film Screening: Cast Me If You Can
(Discussion with Director Atsushi Ogata, Harvard College alum)
Harvard Hall 104
THURSDAY (April 21)
7:30pm Japan Society Haiku Competition Reception
Ticknor Lounge, Boylston Hall
FRIDAY (April 22)
4-5:30pm Interdisciplinary Symposium on Japan Disaster Response & Future Assessment
Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South
6pm Faculty and Alumni Dinner
Adams House LCR
Please visit our website to find out more:
http://harvard.edu/harvardforjapan/
Harvard for Japan is sponsored by the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Harvard Foundation, and the Program on U.S.- Japan Relations at The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. We are also part of U for Japan alliance.
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| http://harvard.edu/harvardforjapan/ |
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April 9, 2011 |
| Moving Memorial Service for Reverend Gomes |
 Hundreds of people crowded Harvard’s Memorial Church on Wednesday (April 6) to honor the life and legacy of the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, who died in February at age 68.
Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, served there for 41 years. The nearly two-hour memorial service was filled with music, including “When the Perfect Comes,” an anthem that Gomes commissioned to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his ordination. The service included many fond remembrances from longtime friends and colleagues for the man at the heart of Harvard’s spiritual life for so long.
Full Harvard Gazette article by Colleen Walsh at URL below. Photo by Harvard staff photographer Kris Snibbe. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/04/a-moving-tribute/ |
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April 9, 2011 |
| Admissions Letters Out to 35,000 Applicants |
 Harvard College sent out admissions notices to 35,000 applicants on April 1st. 6.2% of applicants were admitted, including 3 from Japan with 7 more students from Japan admitted to the waiting list.
More than 60 percent of the admitted students will receive need-based scholarships averaging more than $40,000, benefiting from a record $160 million in financial aid. Families with students on scholarship contribute an average of $11,500 annually toward the cost of a Harvard education.
By standard measures of academic talent, including test scores and academic performance, this year’s applicants presented an unprecedented level of excellence. More than 14,000 scored 700 or above on the SAT critical reading test; 17,000 scored 700 or above on the SAT math test; 15,000 scored 700 or higher on the SAT writing test; and 3,800 were ranked first in their high school classes.
Minority representation remained strong. The admitted class is 17.8 percent Asian-American, 11.8 percent African-American, 12.1 percent Latino, 1.9 percent Native American, and 0.2 percent Native Hawaiian.
Foreign citizens make up 10 percent of the admitted students. In addition, a significant number of other entering students will bring an international perspective, including 141 U.S. dual citizens, 70 U.S. permanent residents, and many Americans who have lived abroad. Together, foreign citizens, U.S. duals, and U.S. permanent residents constitute nearly 20 percent of the class. There are 85 countries represented in it.
See full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/03/an-unprecedented-admissions-year/ |
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April 10, 2011 |
| Harvard Club of Japan Supports Ongoing Urgent Relief Efforts in Tohoku |
 Harvard Club of Japan recently donated 500,000 yen to Hands On Tokyo and Grace City Church Tokyo to support their relief efforts in Tohoku. Please consider donating to support these efforts which are led by Harvard grads Junko Kim (GSE 2005) and Steven Lin. Junko Kim's blog at the URL below describes the ongoing activities. Even now one month after the quake and tsunami, the situation remains life-and-death for many residents, so funds and volunteers are still urgently needed.
Donate to HOT by Paypal at https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/charity.jsp?NP_ID=45329
or by wiring funds to the following account.
Bank Name: Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ; Toranomon Branch (041)
Account Number:Futsu 0072787
Account Name: Hands On Tokyo |
| http://linkjapan.wordpress.com/ |
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April 2, 2011 |
| HBS Alumni fron 2005-10 Raising Funds for Relief |
 HBS alumni class of 2005-2010, together with current students 2011-2012, formed an "HBS Japan Outreach Team." With support of Hirotaka Takeuchi, HBS Professor of Management Practice, and Dan Isenberg, a former HBS faculty, they internally raised over $50k first, and with that, reached out to the HBS community by themselves to ask for support at http://hbsjapanrelief.blogspot.com/p/where-to-donate.html. |
| http://hbsjapanrelief.blogspot.com/p/where-to-donate.html |
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March 23, 2011 |
| Panel Discussion on Japan Disaster at Harvard |
 See coverage in Harvard Crimson at URL below. Article by Aisling H. Crane, Contributing Writer. Photo of Kotaro Tamura, research associate in Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University and former Diet member, by Casra Labelle. |
| http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/24/japan-event-japanese-disaster/ |
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March 16, 2011 |
| Surviving Great Tokyo-Tohoku Quake (Info) |
NHK runs news and information on the quake. English version is available. Please check it as frequently as possible. Thouse out of Japan may watch NHK World.
Radiation: http://eq.yahoo.co.jp/ (Japanese)
People in Shinjuku, Tokyo, were exposed to an estimated 0.089 millisieverts of radiation on March 16th. Their daily average of exposure is from 0.028 to 0.079mSv. One person is usually exposed to an annual level of 2.4mSv. The amount of exposure in an airplane during a round trip between Tokyo and NY is 0.2mSv. The level from an X-ray test is 100mSv.
Blackouts: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/index-e.html
TEPCO, the power company, is imposing rolling blackouts in Tokyo and the vicinity.
The company changes the schedule often. Please check NHK news.
The blackouts are affecting Japanese manufacturer, which are thinking of fully or partially suspending operations.
Public transportation: JR train http://www.jreast.co.jp/
Shinkansen Bullet trains are in service except for those for the quake hit area. Narita Express and Keisei Skyliners are not. Please use a bus if you have to come to Tokyo via Narita.
Commuter trains are operated only by half or up to 80 percent. The Tokyo subway system has been fully recovered. Often escalators and elevators at a station are not in service due to electricity saving.
Water: Some parts of Chiba and the northern Kanto area have experienced no water supply because a utility company failed to switch an emergency generator at the time of blackouts. Now it is returned to the normal.
Shops: Some shopping centers and most of entertainment facilities are closed until Thursday or the end of this week.
In some areas, people are buying gas and daily goods in panic. The quake ruined the distribution system centering in the Tohoku area, making products scarce in the market.
Aid: The Cabinet office is asking us to avoid any hasty action for volunteering. It says not to come to the affected area in person or try to contact officers and others by phone. It also says do not send food or aid supplies directly to the area as it will create more confusion among the survivors.
http://www.bousai.go.jp/
NHK and the Red Cross have started fund raising. http://www.jrc.or.jp/contribution/l3/Vcms3_00002069.html
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| http://eq.yahoo.co.jp/ |
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March 3, 2011 |
| Rev. Peter J. Gomes dies at 68 |
 Reverend Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, died on Feb. 28 from complications arising from a stroke. He was 68 years old.
Reverend Gomes was a brilliant scholar in history of early American religions, an eloquent Baptist preacher, and an advocate of intolerance.
Being a conservative Republican for most part of his life, he gave the benediction at President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration and delivered the National Cathedral sermon at the inauguration of George Bush, Reagan’s successor.
But in 1991 in the middle of bashing turmoil on campus, he made a “coming out” and stunned the Harvard community. It is said quite a few people in the Establishment called for his resignation. But he did not. Harvard did not pressure him, either. The whole incident proved Harvard as a bastion of intolerance.
Gomes spent his late years to figure out questions on Christianity and homosexuality but refused to be labeled as a “gay preacher.”
His scholarly talent can be seen in his sermons as well as books including “The Good Life: Truths that Last in Times of Need” (2002), “Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living” (2003) and “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News” (2007).
Reverend Gomes was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1942. He studied in Bates College and Harvard Divinity School.
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| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/03/rev-peter-j-gomes-dies-at-68/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Peter%20Gomes%20Announcement%20(2)&utm_content= |
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March 1, 2011 |
| Early Action Returns |
 After Trial, Harvard College Restores Admissions Option, With Additions
Harvard College announced on February 24 that it will restore nonbinding early action as part of its admissions process this fall and significantly enhance its recruiting program to assist talented students from modest economic backgrounds in navigating the admissions process. See full Harvard Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://alumni.harvard.edu/stories/early-action-returns |
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March 2, 2011 |
| Natalie Portman wins Oscar |
 Natalie Portman, ne Natalie Hershlag, class of 03, has won this year’s Academy Award for best actress. She majored in Psychology and is currently pursuing her academic career at Harvard University to be a psychologist.
Ms. Portman played a ballerina, Nina Sayers, in Darren Aronofsky’s psycho drama, Black Swan. With this leading role, she also won the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award.
After being in the spotlight for her role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, she completed her degree in Harvard.
Ms. Portman discloses her feeling about her life in Cambridge in the January issue of Vogue magazine. She says, “I gained my freshman fifteen or 20 and had superdepressed moments. That Cambridge winter is tough. It was important to know how to go through that and how to get myself out of it. You start learning how to ask your friends or professionals for help, or go to mentors.”
She also talks about Professor Jorie Graham. She says, “She was the kind of woman I wanted to be—sexy and smart. It’s an amazing gift to get to hear someone talk in that way about poetry. Yeats, Eliot—the rhythms of the words stay in your body all day.”
Ms. Portman was born in Jerusalem in 1981 and moved to the United States with her family in her youth.
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| http://www.natalieportman.com/ |
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January 7, 2010 |
| Nominations Solicited for Expanded Harvard Corporation |
 Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
As announced in December, the Harvard Corporation will expand from seven to thirteen members, as part of a broader set of changes involving the Corporation’s composition and work. We are beginning the search for new members, with the expectation that we will achieve the planned expansion over the next two to three years.
We invite all members of the extended Harvard community to send your advice on the search and your nominations of individuals who you believe would be strong candidates for the Corporation. Please direct your advice and nominations by email to corporationsearch@harvard.edu or by letter addressed to the Corporation Search Committee, Harvard University, Loeb House, 17 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138. Your communications will be held in strict confidence.
The members of the Corporation will be joined on the search committee by three colleagues from the Board of Overseers – Joshua Boger, PhD ’79, founder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and chair of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows; Diana Nelson, AB ’84, director of the Carlson Companies and former co-chair of the Harvard College Fund; and Robert Shapiro, AB ’72, JD ’78, a partner at Ropes & Gray, past president of both the Harvard Alumni Association and the Harvard Law School Association, and a member of the recent governance review committee focused on the Corporation’s composition and work.
We look forward to receiving any advice and nominations you may wish to share. Many thanks in advance, and all best wishes for the new year.
Sincerely,
Drew Faust, President
Robert D. Reischauer, Senior Fellow
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| http://president.harvard.edu/news/101206_governance.php |
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December 13, 2010 |
| Welcome Maya Helena! |
 Member Henry Seals '96 who spearheads our club's community service activities and his wife Sasha Lee Tameiko Seals report the birth of Maya Helena Seals on December 13th. Blessings (including enough sleep) to all!
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December 25, 2010 |
| Paul Farmer Named University Professor |
 Paul Farmer (center) has been named a University Professor, Harvard’s highest distinction for a faculty member. “Paul Farmer is best known to the public as a pioneering humanitarian,” President Drew Faust said in announcing the appointment. “But among scholars he is equally well-known for his research and writing, which have crossed boundaries between the social sciences and biomedical research and married theory and practice to forge a new approach to global health."
Farmer is widely known as co-founder of Partners In Health, the international humanitarian organization that works cooperatively with communities to combat disease in resource-poor settings.
See full story in December 16 Harvard Gazette article at URL below. Photo by Harvard staff photographer Justin Ide. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/12/farmer-appointed-university-professor/ |
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December 25, 2010 |
| Harvard Receiver Gives Gift |
 Globe sportswriter Bob Ryan has a heartwarming story to fit the mood of the season, about a small act of generosity by Harvard Crimson's wide receiver senior Marco Iannuzzi. While one would like to think that Harvard has a hand in building the character of its students, we suspect that Marco's character was pretty well built from the start. Thanks Marco and to Bob Ryan for the story. |
| http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/football/articles/2010/12/24/for_receiver_better_to_give/ |
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December 22, 2010 |
| Fumihiko Maki to be awarded 2011 AIA Gold Medal |
 Fumihiko Maki, GSA 1956 , GSD 1954 , has won this year's Gold Medal for The American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The organization gives the medal to an individual whose body of work has a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. The award is considered to be the architect's highest honor.
He is the third Japanese who receives the prize, following Kenzo Tange and Tadao Ando. He will join the rank of visionaries such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, Renzo Piano, I.M. Pei, Cesar Pelli, and Santiago Calatrava.
Mr. Maki received a Masters of Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1954 and was an Associate Professor at GSD from 1962-5. Principal of Maki and Associates in Tokyo, Mr. Maki won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1993. His Tower Four of Ground Zero in New York City is scheduled for completion in 2012.
The Harvard Club of Japan along with MIT invited Mr. Maki to have a lecture on June 2 this year.
His notable works include as follows:
Hillside Terrace (1969- in Tokyo)
Spiral (1985 In Tokyo.)
Makuhari Messe (1989 In Chiba.)
Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (1990, Kanagawa)
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (1993 in San Francisco)
Ensemble Global Gate (2000-2006 in Düsseldorf)
Office Building Solitaire (2001 in Düsseldorf)
TV Asahi (2003 In Tokyo.)
Republic Polytechnic (2006 in Singapore)
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and Walker Hall at Washington University (2006 in St. Louis)
Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat (2008 in Ottawa)
Building Square 3 at Novartis Campus (2009 in Basel, Switzerland)
Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania (2009 in Philadelphia)
MIT Media Lab Extension at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2010 in Cambridge, Massachusetts)
He will be honored at the 2011 AIA National Convention to be held in New Orleans, which begins in May 12.
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| http://www.maki-and-associates.co.jp/ |
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December 13, 2010 |
| Harvard Alumni Association Year in Review web site |
 See a web site with slide shows of highlights of HAA's activities worldwide in 2010. Best wishes and happy new year to all!
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| http://yearinreview.alumni.harvard.edu/ |
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December 6, 2012 |
| Governance Review Report to University Community |
 The Harvard Corporation Governance Review Committee has issued a report to the Harvard University community about a review and resulting changes in the Corporation's composition, structure and practices, The full report is available on-line at the URL below. |
| http://president.harvard.edu/reports/101206_governance.pdf |
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November 22, 2011 |
| Japan Revisionist Chalmers Johnson Dead at 79 |
 The passing of Chalmers Johnson is noted in a personal note by author James Fallows in his blog on the The Atlantic web site at the URL below. The photo of Johnson here is borrowed from that blog entry. Johnson's book MITI and The Japanese Miracle remains a classic on the model of economic development in Japan and all of Asia. In recent years Johnson was a noted critic of the extension of American military power into every corner of the globe.
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| http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/11/chalmers-johnson/66853/ |
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November 22, 2010 |
| Japan Expert Jack Seward Dies at 86 |
 Jack Seward who served under General Douglas MacArthur during the Allied Occupation of Japan and went on do work related to Japan in intelligence, private industry, academia and as a popular author died November 10th at age 86. In 1986 Seward was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor of Japan. Anyone who is involved in relations between US and Japan in any field or in their personal lives owes a debt to pioneers like Seward who helped build the foundations of the strong relationship that exists today. See full story in Japan Times at URL below. Photo of Seward taken from Japan Times web site was provided courtesy of John Seward. |
| http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101119f2.html |
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November 2, 2010 |
| EALC Professor Emeritus Harold Bolitho Dies at 71 |
 Harold Bolitho, professor of Japanese history emeritus in Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, died on Oct. 23 after a long illness.
Bolitho was born Jan. 3, 1939, the youngest of six children in Melbourne, Australia, where he spent his youth. He was a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral and enjoyed music all of his life. He graduated from Melbourne University and went on to obtain his Ph.D. at Yale University. He was married to the former Anne Bevan of Melbourne.
He leaves his wife Sharon Ladd, three children ― James ’11, Harold, and Emily ― and five grandchildren. A funeral will be held on Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. in the Memorial Church, Harvard Yard. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/10/professor-harold-bolitho-dies/ |
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November 4, 2010 |
| Host a January Experience for a Harvard Student! |
 Are you interested in supporting and connecting with Harvard undergraduates, but haven't been sure how to get involved? Now is your chance―create your student January Experience today. See more information at Harvard Alumni Association web site at URL below. |
| http://www.alumni.harvard.edu/haa/events/january-experience |
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October 25, 2010 |
| Harvard University’s doctoral programs highly evaluated by NRC |
 Harvard University’s doctoral programs received exceptionally high evaluations in the National Research Council’s Assessment of Research Doctoral Programs, which was released on September 28th. Details in Harvard Gazette article at URL below. Photo by Harvard staff photographer Kris Snibbe. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/09/high-marks-for-doctoral-programs/ |
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September 17, 2010 |
| Birth announcement |
 Notice from Shin Fujihira Associate Director of the Program on US-Japan Relations at Harvard that his son Kenshin Fujihira （藤平健伸）was born the morning of Friday, September 17. He and his mother, Kaori Urayama, are doing well. Congratulations and best wishes!
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September 26, 2010 |
| Harvard Club particpates in successful college fair |
 On August 22, 2010 the US College Alumni Network of Japan (USCANJ) held a collge fair in Tokyo at which thirteen US colleges including Harvard exhibited. Videos (in Japanese) from the information sessions at the fair can be seen at the URL below. There is also an English version of the USCANJ information (without videos) at
http://www.uscanj.net/?page_id=3&lang=en
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| http://www.uscanj.net/?page_id=3 |
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August 8, 2010 |
| Kagan sworn in as Supreme Court Justice |
 Elena Kagan, JD 86, became the 112th person and the 4th woman to serve on the supreme court on Saturday. She is President Barack Obama's second successful appointment to the court.
She was supervisory editor of the Harvard Law Review for which Obama served as the first African American president.
She came to Harvard Law School as a visiting professor in 1999 and became professor of law in 2001. She was appointed dean of the law school in 2003 and was named the Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law.
In her speech at the White House on May 10th, she touched on Harvard. She said, "I had the privilege of leading one of the world’s great law schools and of working there to bring people together and to help ensure that they and the school were making the largest possible contribution to the public good, both in this country and around the world."
Now 5 out of 9 Supreme Court justices are from Harvard. Those include Chief Justice John Roberts, AB '76 and JD '79, Justice Stephen Breyer, 'JD 64, Justice Anthony Kennedy, JD '61, and Justice Antonin Scalia, JD '60. Ruth Bader Ginsberg also went to Harvard but moved to Columbia Law School which she eventually graduated from.
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| http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/alumni-pursuits/kagan.html |
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August 5, 2010 |
| Job openings at Osaka University |
 HSPH grad Junko Otani writes to mention job openings for 4 non-Japanese new faculty members to teach International Education, Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, and Japanese Culture. Deadline to apply is August 16th. For details write Dr. Otani at otani@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp
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| http://www.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/info/koubo.html |
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July 21, 2010 |
| Former Harvard basketball star signs with NBA team |
 Former Harvard guard and three-time All-Ivy League honoree Jeremy Lin ’10 has signed a multiple-year professional contract with the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lin is attempting to become the first Asian-American player to play in the NBA since Rex Walters was a member of the Miami Heat in 2000.
See full Harvard Gazette article by Tim Williamson at URL below Photo by Harvard staff photographer Jon Chase. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/07/jeremy-lin-signs-with-warriors/ |
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June 15, 2010 |
| Message from President Faust at End of School Year |
 Text of President Faust's message follows. Photo by Kristyn Ulanday/Harvard Staff Photographer.
Dear Alumni and Friends,
The sun shone bright as we celebrated our 359th commencement on May 27. From the festive morning exercises to Justice David Souter's eloquent and important afternoon speech, the day brought an uplifting end to an academic year of reinvigoration and renewed momentum.
Now that the happy commotion of commencement week has given way to a rare feeling of quiet in the Yard, I thought I'd offer some brief reflections on the year just past.
It's been a year when we have advanced a range of ambitious academic initiatives, while continuing to adjust to a changed economic landscape. And it's been a year when we've drawn new strengths from the creative interplay of Harvard's distinctive parts, while focusing on how what we do here can serve the common good.
This past fall we launched Harvard College's most significant curricular reform in a generation, our new Program in General Education. Gen Ed has already infused the undergraduate experience not only with scores of new and redesigned courses, but with more purposeful connections between classroom learning and life beyond college. Every time I hear about one of the new courses ― on the sciences of the mind, or Hindu art and culture, or how technology shapes the way we live ― part of me wants to be a student again. Through Gen Ed and otherwise, we’ve worked to make our undergraduates feel more and more part of not just a college but a university ― offering them more courses taught by faculty from other Harvard schools, creating new concentrations in bioengineering as well as human development and regenerative biology, and exploring potential opportunities in areas as diverse as public policy, architecture, and religion.
More broadly, we have redoubled our commitment to increasingly robust collaboration across our schools. Especially with financial resources more constrained, we have an important opportunity to consider how each of our schools can benefit more from one another’s academic strengths. One prime example is Harvard’s newest degree program, the doctorate in education leadership, a venture led by the Ed School in partnership with faculty from government and business. Starting in August, its first class of 25 students ― drawn from more than 1,000 applicants ― will experience a novel practice-intensive curriculum meant to prepare them for leadership roles in K-12 education.
To cite another example, in May we expanded our university-wide commitment to global health, as three outstanding faculty members stepped forward to lead the Harvard Institute for Global Health: Sue Goldie (Public Health), as director, teamed with colleagues Paul Farmer (Medicine) and David Cutler (Economics). HIGH is already pursuing an extensive cross-disciplinary research agenda in areas from infectious diseases to national health systems to children's health. In addition, HIGH's faculty affiliates are mounting a host of new courses for undergraduates and graduate students, many of them combining classroom study with fieldwork and clinical experience.
As I reported at commencement, this has been a year when we affirmed public service as a core university ideal, at a moment when the call to service seems exceptionally resonant and strong. We had a university-wide public service week in October, featuring prominent alumni such as Governor Deval Patrick, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, and Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone. The Kennedy School led a conference in Washington on creating better pathways for federal service, and the Law School initiated a venture fund to support students in a range of public-interest activities. The Harvard Alumni Association organized a global month of service in April, and helped us launch a new portal, "Public Service on the Map," that will offer our students, alumni, faculty, and staff fingertip access to a worldwide web of opportunities to serve the greater good.
We have also extended our global reach, as more faculty and students take advantage of opportunities for learning abroad ― studying water systems and clean energy in Brazil, or ancient civilization and classical literature in Greece, business and social enterprise in Rwanda, or modernity and social change in South Korea. Early in 2010, our emphases on global health, public service, and international engagement powerfully converged when faculty, students, and staff ― including many from Harvard's affiliated hospitals ― pooled their energies through organizations such as Partners In Health and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to help allay the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti.
I had the privilege of traveling to South Africa and Botswana in the fall and to Japan and China in the spring, connecting with some of Harvard's most active alumni communities abroad. I will never forget the experience of visiting a hospital in Botswana where a Harvard team, led by Professor Max Essex, has devised a drug regimen that is curtailing the transmission of HIV-AIDS from breastfeeding mothers to their infants. Nor will I forget the spirited March opening of the Harvard Shanghai Center, where I joined colleagues from the Business School, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and several other schools to launch a venture that exemplifies both our more expansive international agenda and the rising appetite for interfaculty cooperation.
In the sciences, we started the academic year on a high note when Jack Szostak of the Medical School won a Nobel Prize for pioneering work on telomerase, an enzyme that protects chromosomes from degrading. We carried forward our commitment to innovative interdisciplinary science by designing flexible new lab facilities for our programs in stem cell and regenerative biology and biologically inspired engineering, even as we delayed our eventual expansion into Allston. Our undergraduates benefited from new introductory science courses and more opportunities for faculty-mentored lab research; our graduate students continued to bridge institutional borders through new consortium programs in microbial sciences and in energy and the environment; and our faculty again demonstrated the vibrancy of our scientific enterprise by attracting an impressive volume of federal stimulus grants ― more than 250, plus many more secured by faculty in our affiliated hospitals.
In the arts, building on the work of last year's university task force and buoyed by a new University Committee on the Arts, we've seen a stream of new courses that permeate the boundary between learning and doing by integrating artistic practice and performance into traditional modes of study. Now, for instance, when students in a freshman seminar study the music of Leonard Bernstein, they can experience it in a whole new way, dancing to selections from West Side Story. The wonderfully imaginative Silk Road Project, led by Yo-Yo Ma, announced that it will make its new home in Allston starting this summer ― a move that promises to boost learning through the arts in both coursework and co-curricular pursuits. Diane Paulus has brought a jolt of energy to the local theater scene since arriving as artistic director of the American Repertory Theater. And, after years of planning, we have started renovating the home of our art museums to create space that is worthy of our extraordinary collections and that invites our students and faculty to study masterworks of art much more closely than before.
Throughout the year, we have kept our focus on adjusting to our changed economic landscape. In the wake of the global financial crisis, we have reduced the amounts distributed from our endowment accounts by 8 percent for the academic year now ending, and by 12 percent for the year to come. We've had to cut costs in many parts of the university. But the exercise has involved much more than that. It has focused our attention on how we can deliver our programs and services in more disciplined and integrated ways ― how we can seek out efficiencies through new combinations and ensure that our spending aligns with core academic priorities, especially during a period of unaccustomed constraint.
The challenge is not just to tamp down costs but to reimagine aspects of how we do our work, to make sure we embrace best practices and direct our resources to their highest and best use. For instance, we have made encouraging progress in a major effort to rethink organizational dimensions of our highly decentralized library system. We have an opportunity, and an obligation, to reconsider and rationalize how we administer one of Harvard's greatest treasures and to renew it for an era of unprecedented change in how we collect, transmit, and preserve knowledge and information.
In the face of our economic challenges, it's been a year when we have taken care to sustain our strong programs of student financial aid. Even as we have scrubbed our budgets, we have made it a priority to hold our doors open wide to students of ability and promise, whatever their economic means. And we have attracted outstanding applicants in record numbers. For the first time, applications to Harvard College surpassed 30,000, for approximately 1,650 places in the entering class. Applications climbed in nearly all of our graduate and professional schools, with numbers at or near historical highs in business, design, education, government, law, and medicine.
It has also been a year when we welcomed new leaders in key domains. We've benefited from the energetic leadership of two first-year deans, Martha Minow at the Law School and Cherry Murray in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Nitin Nohria, a scholar of leadership and organizational change, will become dean of Harvard Business School this summer, as Jay Light retires after 40 years as a mainstay of the HBS faculty. Katie Lapp joined us from the University of California as our executive vice president, and has undertaken a careful review of how the central administration both performs and funds its work. Lisa Coleman arrived from Tufts as our chief diversity officer. And Bill Lee, a leading expert on intellectual property and a former Overseer, will join the Corporation on July 1, succeeding Jamie Houghton, who steps down after 15 years of distinguished service.
For everything I've remarked on, for every example I've highlighted, there are dozens of others worthy of mention. The point is simply this. We share membership in a university community of remarkable resilience and energy. It's a community with an uncommon capacity to weather challenges, to learn from them, to adapt and move forward. That we do so, individually and together, matters a great deal ― not just to what happens on campus from day to day, not just to the realm of ideas, but to the prospects for progress and enlightened action in a complex and sometimes confounding world. Looking out from the commencement stage, at the tapestry of talent our graduates embody, I couldn't help but think what a privilege it is for me to be part of that effort and to help weave its many diverse strands into a larger whole. As we finish another academic year and look ahead to the next, I'm grateful to all of you who together make Harvard's promise real.
Warm wishes for the summer ahead.
Sincerely,
Drew Faust
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| http://president.harvard.edu/speeches/faust/100608_year.php |
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June 5, 2010 |
| Flamenco Concert by Recent HCJ Event Performer |
 Those of you who enjoyed (or missed) the recent Harvard Club concert at Super Deluxe may be interested in a flamenco concert in Shimbashi on Saturday June 5th that includes Kazutaka Ogawa the classical guitarist who was one of the performers at Super Deluxe. The June 5th concert is at Yakult Hall and doors open at 5:30pm. For details call Tanaka-san at 047-483-4334. |
| http://www.suerton.com/top1.html |
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May 30, 2010 |
| NHK Program Series: Justice with Harvard Prof. Michael Sandel |
Watch a continuing series of lectures by popular Prof. Michael Sandel, political philosopher, for his undergraduate class with the theme of " Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?"
The series of 24 lectures is being broadcasted over NHK Educational TV from 6 to 7 PM every Sunday. |
| http://www.nhk.or.jp/harvard/about.html |
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May 30, 2010 |
| Harvard Beats Yale in 145th Harvard-Yale Regatta |
 Harvard crew continued its dominance of America’s oldest intercollegiate athletic event, defeating rival Yale by open water in a Saturday morning race on the Thames River in Connecticut.
It was Harvard’s third straight win in the series and 10th in the last 11 years, giving the Crimson a commanding 91-54 lead in a rivalry that dates back to 1852.
The first Harvard-Yale Regatta took place August 3, 1852, on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee. The race moved to the Thames 26 years later and has been held there regularly ever since. The four-mile varsity race is the longest of its kind in the United States, nearly three times longer than a standard crew race.
See full story by John Veneziano, Boston Globe Correspondent on Boston.com at URL below. Photo by Jessica Hill/AP.
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| http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/2010/05/harvard_crew_to.html |
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May 29, 2010 |
| Obituary: Dr. Tomoji Ichinose |
 The Harvard Club of Japan wants to pay tribute to Dr. Tomoji Ichinose who passed away on April 6. He was 87 years old.
He attended the International Teachers Program at Harvard Business School from 1963 to 1964. Ever since he came back to Japan, he had been a strong supporter for Harvard and the Harvard Club of Japan.
HCJ President Carl Kay says Ichinose-san was very kind and one of the most loyal members. He remembers he talked with the veteran Harvard grad many times at HCJ events.
Dr. Ichinose taught Public Administration & Public Enterprise at the International Christian University in Tokyo from 1963 to 1988. He also taught at Saitama University and Ishinomaki Senshu University.
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| http://www.icu.ac.jp/english/news/20100407-207.html |
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May 27, 2010 |
| Commencement Day May 27th! |
 In her Class Day speech, broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour challenges graduating seniors to live in the world “fully informed, fully aware, and fully on board.”
Follow all the Commencement activities at the URL below. |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement-2010#uptodatecoverage |
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May 23, 2010 |
| MEMBER NEWS: Book by Junko Otani MPH'93 MS'94 on elderly in natural disasters |
 An English book, “Older People in Natural Disasters” presented to the Harvard-Yenching Library by JUNKO OTANI (MPH '93, MS'94) has been published by the Trans Pacific Press in Australia and the Kyoto University Press in Japan and can be seen at the URL below. The Chinese edition was also published from SMC publishing in Taiwan.
“Older People in Natural Disasters”, Junko Otani, Trans Pacific Press: Australia & Kyoto University Press: Japan. 2010.
ISBN 978-1920901899
Japan's Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 destroyed the homes, livelihoods, and communities of many elderly people. Some of the most vulnerable survivors spent up to five years in temporary shelters before settling into publicly subsidized apartments or dispersing into the general population. Public scrutiny of the post-earthquake recovery drew attention to the challenges of community generation and the loneliness, isolation, and death experienced by elderly earthquake victims. Bringing together quantitative and qualitative analysis of media discourse, public policy, and ethnographic fieldwork, this book examines the earthquake's long-term effects of temporary shelters and public reconstruction housing for elderly residents. The first study to utilize NVivo qualitative research software in a Japanese research context, this is an original contribution to natural disaster literature, as well as health and welfare policy in societies that, like Japan, are undergoing rapid urbanization and population aging.
Junko Otani, DDS, MPH, MS, PhD, is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University. She obtained her MPH in international health and MS in population science from Harvard University and her PhD in social policy and administration from the London School of Economics. She has worked for the World Bank as a health specialist and for the World Health Organization as a medical officer, based mainly in China. She taught at Kyushu University from 2005 and moved to Osaka, her hometown, in 2008. Her areas of specialization include international health and population, social development studies, sociology, and research methodology.
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| http://www.amazon.com/Older-People-Natural-Disasters-Junko/dp/1920901892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274602631&sr=8-1 |
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May 5, 2010 |
| Nitin Nohria named next dean of HBS |
 Nitin Nohria, Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration, has been named the dean of Harvard Business
Nitin Nohria, the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School (HBS), will become the School’s 10th dean, President Drew Faust announced today (May 4).
A scholar of leadership and organizational change, Nohria has previously been the School’s senior associate dean for faculty development and chair of its organizational behavior unit. Current co-chair of the HBS Leadership Initiative and a member of the HBS faculty since 1988, he will take up his new role on July 1.
See full article in Harvard Gazette at URL below.
Photo by Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/05/nitin-nohria-named-next-dean-of-harvard-business-school/ |
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April 28, 2010 |
| Commencement Week May 25-28 |
 Commencement Week at Harvard is in late May this year due to new academic calendar. Justice David Souter (photo) is among the speakers. Details of the week's activities at URL below. |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/05/the-weeks-events |
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April 24, 2010 |
| Harvard Physicist Robert Pound Dead at 90 |
 Robert Pound, a Harvard physicist whose experiments provided the first laboratory confirmation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity and helped pave the way for the age of magnetic resonance imaging, died on April 12 in Belmont, Mass. He was 90.
See full article in NY Times by Jascha Hoffman at URL below.
(registration and/or subscription may be required）
Photo from Physical Review web site at
http://focus.aps.org/story/v16/st1 |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/us/20pound.html |
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April 21, 2010 |
| HAA ballots should have reached you, vote soon |
 This spring, alumni can vote for a new group of Harvard Overseers and elected directors for the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) board.
In view of the changes in the University calendar that have taken effect as of the 2009-10 academic year, resulting in an earlier Commencement, the schedule for the annual Overseers election has been adjusted accordingly. Ballots for the election will now be mailed by April 1, 2010, and completed ballots must be received by noon on May 21, 2010. Any individuals wishing to seek nomination through the filing of petitions must submit those petitions by February 1, 2010. For a listing of the 2009-2010 Harvard Overseers, please click here.
Results of the election will be announced at the HAA’s annual meeting on May 27, on the afternoon of Commencement day. All holders of Harvard degrees, except Corporation members and officers of instruction and government, are entitled to vote for Overseer candidates. The election for HAA directors is open to all Harvard degree holders.
The HAA's nominating committee has proposed the below candidates in 2010. For more information please visit the Harvard University Elections Website.
FOR OVERSEER:
Cheryl Dorsey AB ’85, MD ’91, MPP ’92
President
EchoingGreen
New York, NY
Joseph Fuller AB ’79, MBA ’81
Co-founder, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Monitor Group
Cambridge, MA
David Heyman AB ’83
Film Producer
London, England
Walter Isaacson AB ’74
Chief Executive Officer
The Aspen Institute
Washington, DC
Nicholas Kristof AB ’82
Columnist
The New York Times
New York, NY
Karen Nelson Moore AB ’70, JD ’73
United States Circuit Judge
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Cleveland, OH
Diana Nelson AB ’84
Director
Carlson Companies, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
David Tang AB ’75
Managing Partner, Asia
K&L Gates
Seattle, WA
FOR ELECTED DIRECTOR:
Kenneth Bartels AB ’73, MBA ’76
President and Chief Executive Officer
Paxton Properties, Inc.
New York, NY
Roger Fairfax, Jr. AB ’94, JD ’98
Law Professor
George Washington University Law School
Washington, DC
Mark Fusco AB ’83, MBA ’90
Chief Executive Officer
Aspen Tech
Westwood, MA
Lindsay Hyde AB ’04
Founder and President
Strong Women, Strong Girls
Boston, MA
M. Margaret Kemeny AB ’68
Professor of Surgery, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
Chief of Surgical Oncology and Director of Queens Cancer Center
New York, NY
George Newhouse, Jr. AB ’76
Partner
Brown, White & Newhouse, LLP
Los Angeles, CA
Reynaldo Valencia JD ’90
Associate Dean for Administration and Finance; Professor of Corporate and Securities Law
St. Mary’s University School of Law
San Antonio, TX
Victoria Wells Wulsin AB ’75, MPH ’82, DPH ’85
Physician
Mid-City Pediatrics
Cincinnati, OH
Irene Wu AB ’91
Director of International Research
U.S. Federal Communications Commission;
Adjunct Professor
Georgetown University
Washington, DC |
| http://classes.harvard.edu/ |
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April 9, 2010 |
| Club volunteers make onigiri for Tokyo homeless |
 Eleven volunteers from Harvard Club of Japan recently helped Hands on Tokyo make onigiri rice balls for a homeless shelter in Sumida Ward of Tokyo. A good time was had by all. Thanks to all participants and to the people at Hands on Tokyo which was founded by Harvard grad Steven Lin.
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| http://www.harvardclubofjapan.org/006_1.do?no=70 |
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April 6, 2010 |
| Historic Year for College Admissions |
 Three students from Japan were admitted to the Class of 2014, and three more made the waiting list.
For the first time in Harvard’s history, more than 30,000 students applied to the College, leading to an admission rate of 6.9 percent for the Class of 2014. Letters of admission (and e-mail notifications) were sent on April 1 to 2,110 of the 30,489 applicants. More than 60 percent of the admitted students will receive need-based scholarships averaging $40,000, benefiting from a record $158 million in financial aid. Families with students on scholarship are expected to contribute an average of $11,500 annually toward the cost of a Harvard education.
See full article from April 1 Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://alumni.harvard.edu/stories/historic-year-college-admissions |
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March 24, 2010 |
| Harvard Center Shanghai Opens Its Doors |
 The Harvard Shanghai Center, which occupies an entire floor of one of the newly constructed skyscrapers in the city’s Pudong section, is the first such presentation and research space of its kind outside of Boston and Cambridge, and represents an important next stage of the University’s long engagement in Asia. The center is intended to serve as a locus of research and teaching activity, and while its creation has been spearheaded by the Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Harvard China Fund, it is specifically intended as a resource by Harvard faculty, students and alumni across all of Harvard’s Schools.
See full article in Harvard Gazette at URL below. Photo by Harvard Staff Photographer Stephanie Mitchell. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/03/harvard-center-shanghai-opens-its-doors/ |
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March 10, 2010 |
| President Faust, on Visit to Japan, Encourages More to Apply |
Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, during her visit to Japan March 12-18, encouraged more Japanese students to apply to Harvard, in an interview (Japanese only) with Yomiuri Shimbun at the URL below.
In Japan, President Faust will:
• meet with academic specialists in American studies at Doshisha;
• join a luncheon with university presidents and others hosted by International House of Japan in Tokyo, to share ideas on how to create global citizens;
• hold a press conference at the Foreign Press Club in Tokyo;
• meet with students at Keio Girls Senior High School;
• speak at a dinner, to be attended by over 350 alums and distinguished guests (including Sadako Ogata), hosted by the Harvard Club of Japan and the Harvard Alumni Association (at which Ezra Vogel's 80th birthday also will be saluted);
• meet with Prime Minister Hatoyama;
• go on a brief architectural tour led by the Dean of GSD;
• and visit Tsukiji fish market, guided by anthropologist Ted Bestor.
On the trip she will be accompanied by historian Andrew Gordon and political scientist and Reischauer Institute Director Susan Pharr. After the stay in Japan, President Faust will proceed to Shanghai for events there. Notes from the trip will appear in a blog on the Harvard Gazette website.
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| http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/world/news/20100310-OYT1T00853.htm |
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March 10, 2010 |
| Harvard and Japan, Through Time |
 In conjunction with President Faust's visit to Japan (she arrives in Kyoto on March 11) the Harvard Gazette has created a timeline of Harvard's history with Japan. Click on the photos for audio content. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/03/japan-timeline/ |
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March 1, 2010 |
| John F. Kennedy School of Government announces $5 million gift from Glenn Dubin |
 The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced today a $5 million gift from Glenn Dubin, co-founder and CEO of Highbridge Capital Management. This gift will be used to launch a graduate fellowship fund to support and develop new programs for emerging leaders from the United States and around the world.
The Dubin Graduate Fellowships for Emerging Leaders will be based at Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership (CPL). Dubin Fellowships will be awarded on a competitive basis and will provide full tuition for up to ten students each year, beginning in the 2010–11 academic year.
See full press release at URL below. |
| http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/press-releases/pr-dubin-donation-feb10 |
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March 1, 2010 |
| Samuel Huntington Fellowship Fund at GSAS is Established |
 A group of generous alumni and friends has established the Samuel Huntington Fellowship Fund at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). The fund will provide general aid to doctoral students who exhibit academic excellence in the social sciences ― including international affairs, American politics, and political science. GSAS will award fellowships to deserving students each year.
See full article in Harvard Gazette Online Feb 18, 2010 at URL below. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/02/new-fellowship-fund/ |
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February 20, 2010 |
| David Souter to Speak at 359th Commencement |
 David H. Souter, a native New Englander and Harvard alumnus who served nearly two decades on the U.S. Supreme Court before stepping down in 2009, will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard’s 359th Commencement.
See full article in February 8, 2010 Harvard Gazette at URl below. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/02/speaker-release/ |
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February 3, 2010 |
| Report on the Liberal Arts Education Panel Discussion |
 On the evening of February 3, 2010, approximately 70 Harvard Club of Japan members and non-members gathered at the International School of the Sacred Heart in Hiroo, Tokyo for a panel discussion on liberal arts and values education with Mrs. Kazuko Narui, Prof. Mark Langager, and Prof. William Steele.
As much as the keyword, or the buzzword, of the evening’s discussion might have been termed “liberal arts,” another hidden, yet more fundamental, theme was “values” education. If liberal arts education implies a type of learning that is at once non-vocational and intellectually challenging, then the “arts” in liberal arts concern less the headlong acquisition of skills and techniques than the arduous strengthening of the abilities to grapple with interpretive frameworks, worldviews, and differences in opinion, in an environment that validates open-mindedness, intellectual curiosity, and compassion.
The following is a summary of the evening’s presentations and discussion.
1. Mrs. Kazuko Y. Narui, “Teaching Values at K-12: My Experience at ISSH”
1-a. Developing the Whole Person
Mrs. Narui, a values instructor at the International School of the Sacred Heart (ISSH), spoke on the values education program offered in kindergarten through Grade 12 at her school. The overall educational objective at ISSH can be summarized as: developing the whole person. Since ISSH is an international school that welcomes students of all nationalities and faiths, the development of the whole person begins and ends in cultivating a spirit of openness, mutual respect, and tolerance. Students are expected and encouraged to have respect not only for each other, but also for intellectual ideas and the needs of society. In this context, tolerance does not mean superficial multiculturalism. Instead, tolerance arises when one is deeply attuned to the needs of others, how near or far they may be.
At ISSH, learning takes place as a very personal endeavor, through person-to-person contact that often bridges across differences in cultural backgrounds and faiths, certainly, but also differences in age. A picture was shown of a middle school student teaching a kindergartener how to bake cookies, and this scene of learning was likened to the kind of close, interpersonal learning that takes place between parents and children. Bridging across boundaries constitutes the central learning activity of the values education program. The values education curriculum itself is interdisciplinary, as a result of collaborations between the values instructors and instructors specializing in other disciplines, such as history, art, science, language, and physical education.
1-b. Values Education at the Elementary School Level
As part of the values education program, elementary school students learn about volcanoes not just to find out how volcanoes form, but also to feel the passage of geologic time which normally remains imperceptible to humans. Or, the same students may be asked to visit the site of a “kofun,” an ancient funeral mound from 1,500 years ago, and reflect on the distance of time that both separates and binds together the students and the people who built the kofun, which, despite the passage of time, has survived into the present Students may also do research on Japanese place names in the vicinity of the school campus, often to discover that the literal meaning of the names no longer corresponds to the landscape of the named places, as a result of historical changes and upheavals. Mrs. Narui also mentioned an anecdote, where she discovered through DNA samplings that her mitochondria were genetically identical to those of a Caucasian man living in South Africa. With a memorable line (“I am small, but I am a world”), Mrs. Narui underlined the importance of feeling connected to the world, across and through time, space, and various other units of distance.
1-c. Values Education at the Middle and High School Levels
At the middle school and high school levels, students begin to learn more systematically about world religions and spirituality, including those that are specific to Japan. In one class, for example, students would have a discussion around a series of questions related to packing a suitcase: 1) What would you pack in your suitcase if you were leaving for a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca? 2) What would you pack in your suitcase if you had to leave in a hurry, and unsure of whether or when you would be returning home, as in the case of Jewish people who were taken to Nazi concentration camps? 3) What would you pack in your suitcase if you knew you were packing for the very last time? Mrs. Narui found that having the students ask and answer these questions not only encouraged them to gain a deeper understanding of Islam and of the Holocaust, but also enabled them to share their life experiences with each other and understand each other better. In a different class focusing on Japanese religions and spirituality, students are introduced to a legend involving an “oni,” which is a monstrous, supernatural figure that is often associated with brutality and death. Students learn that while the oni may often be hated and banished from society, it also forms an indispensable part of the community that banished it, and can even help or support the members of that community in times of need. Here, one catches a glimpse of a complex moral situation, which, on the surface, may look as simple as good versus bad or humanity versus bestiality, but in reality, requires a more nuanced interpretation.
In closing, Mrs. Narui emphasized the value of feeling comfortable with who one is, and of being able to communicate with others in case one feels discomfort.
2. Prof. Mark W. Langager, “Comparative Liberal Arts Education: Japan and America”
2-a. Liberal Arts as a Discourse
Prof. Langager, the second panelist, gave a broad overview of the historical development of liberal arts education. “Liberal arts” in today’s parlance can be understood as a discourse, or jargon, that is capable of being misunderstood. Other examples of such discourses include multicultural education, human rights, and sustainable development, among others. One possible way to understand “liberal arts” education would be to think of it as a kind of education that validates the students’ own curiosity. Meanwhile, a widespread misconception of liberal arts education is that it is somehow easy. On the contrary, the liberal arts are rigorous and challenging because of the breadth of material and the requisite intellectual drive.
2-b. Monastic Origins of Liberal Arts Education
The liberal arts have Christian monastic origins. One historical figure with whom liberal arts education can be associated is Cassiodorus, a Roman statesman from the 6th century A.D. Cassiodorus, sometimes called the “Father of Literary Monasticism,” founded a Christian monastery and established it as a center of learning for theologians. Theology certainly constituted the most important part of monastic scholarship, but Cassiodorus also advocated the study of a wide variety of secular Greek and Roman texts as an aid to the study of theology. Liberal arts education thus began as a corollary to theological education, and this tradition spread to and was preserved by monasteries and universities in medieval Europe.
The medieval European hierarchy of learning placed theology at the pinnacle, philosophy in the middle, and the liberal arts at the very bottom. The liberal arts consisted of seven subjects: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Theology was the most important and highly prized object of study, and while the liberal arts were considered more rudimentary and less important, they were nevertheless thought to provide students with a strong scholarly foundation by making their minds more flexible and by increasing their overall capacity for learning. Liberal arts education trained theologians to be wary of both extreme pragmatism and extreme dogmatism, to become liberal-minded and experienced thinkers.
2-c. From Europe to America
After the Enlightenment years of the 18th century, theology decreased in status. The liberal arts survived, however, and were taken to America by Europe’s most devout Christians. Liberal arts education took root in the United States and underwent a “renaissance” in the 19th century, although not without controversy. Industrialization and the concomitant utilitarian values certainly made specialization and the acquisition of vocational skills seem both urgent and appealing. Nevertheless, the rapid pace of ongoing technological and economic changes also necessitated the education of flexible and versatile minds of the kinds that only liberal arts education seemed able to shape. Charles William Eliot, who served as President of Harvard University in the latter half of the 19th century and was said to have been particularly sensitive to the societal needs of his times, advocated undergraduate courses of study that combined both a liberal arts component and a specialized, or possibly pre-vocational, component.
2-d. Controversial Liberal Arts
The liberal arts continued to occupy a somewhat controversial place in American education well into the 20th century. For example, in the debates surrounding civil rights, Booker T. Washington advocated vocational education for black students, while W. E. B. Du Bois advocated liberal arts education for black students. Nonetheless, liberal arts have flourished in America. The country now has a number of so-called “liberal arts colleges” where general curricula are offered to undergraduates in settings that encourage person-to-person contact between students and teachers. Many of these liberal arts colleges maintain very high academic standards and send a large fraction of their students to non-vocational Ph.D. programs (Sowell, 1989), where the students finally begin specializing. On the other hand, large research universities like Harvard often combine elements of both liberal arts and specialized education, with the result that graduating seniors are ready either to jump directly into professional circles, including vocational graduate programs such as in law and medicine, as well as jobs in business, non-profit, the arts, and other fields, or to enter non-vocational Ph.D. programs for further academic training. At both small liberal arts colleges and large research universities, liberal arts education acts as a foundation and catalyst for more specialized studies and professional careers, perhaps not unlike the way liberal arts prepared theologians for specialized theological studies in the days of Cassiodorus and later, medieval monastics.
2-e. Liberal Arts in Japan
One cannot help but observe that in Japan, liberal arts education has a very short and limited history. So far, Waseda University and the International Christian University (ICU) are the only major universities in Japan with full-blown liberal arts programs, and both of these institutions have adopted the liberal arts approach to undergraduate education fairly recently. The mainstream in Japanese higher education is still early specialization, and the prevailing system fails to provide most students with the opportunity to learn in an environment where they can freely explore their interests and hone their own intellectual curiosity before moving on to more specialized courses of study. Although the University of Tokyo offers a liberal arts (“kyoyo”) program for first and second-year undergraduates, since each freshman enters the university having been already assigned to one of the six distinct disciplinary classes (law, economics, humanities, natural sciences, engineering, or medicine), the freedom to explore and experiment seems relatively limited. Even at large American research universities, where pressures to specialize can sometimes be high, undergraduates declare their fields of specialization only after their second or third year.
2-f. Thoughts for the Future
Prof. Langager ended his presentation by suggesting that liberal arts education is not an end-all, but a “start-all.” Instead of being a final destination or solution, liberal arts education serves as a foundation for a future grounded in open-minded inquiry and flexible thinking.
One question that remained was whether liberal arts education lends itself more to humanistic ways of thinking than to the sciences. It may be true that degrees of prerequisite specialization needed to participate in a given academic discipline at a certain level of sophistication can vary from discipline to discipline. Nonetheless, in principle, the spirit of liberal arts should know no disciplinary boundaries, as long as, perhaps, we do not place the sciences at the top of a disciplinary pyramid. The various iniquities and imbalances of power and influence that exist among different academic disciplines and modes of inquiry are outside the scope of this discussion, but may be a topic for another panel discussion in the future.
* Please see Appendix II for the list of references for Prof. Langager’s presentation.
3. Prof. M. William Steele, “Realizing Liberal Arts in the 21st Century: Can We Change the Way Students Learn?”
3-a. Changing the Way Teachers Teach
Prof. Steele, the final speaker, opened his presentation with the question: “Can we change the way students learn?” Yes, certainly, he said. It is not too difficult to change the way students learn. Students adapt quickly, and they are usually eager for change. In fact, it is the faculty who are often most resistant to change. Can we change the way professors teach? Yes, it can be done, but not always easily. Prof. Steele had his own personal experience to prove his point, as he led and implemented a major reform to build a full liberal arts undergraduate program at ICU, where he served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for six years, from 2002 to 2008.
If it is sometimes difficult for teachers to change the way they teach, what about in the case of Prof. Steele himself? He had been a very energetic young teacher when he had first arrived at ICU, shortly after receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard. He wanted to pack as much information and interesting details as possible into each of his 75-minute lectures. There was so much to say and tell. He wrote beautiful lectures, and delivered them in front of his classes, week after week. Dense, serious, and informative lectures were the kind of lectures he had received from his best professors at Harvard. Yet somehow, he noticed that some of his students were not learning as much as he had hoped. It seemed bizarre, since he had been presenting his students with so much information. But he knew he had to change the way he was teaching his students. The question was: how?
3-b. “Active Learning”
Put in the most general terms, Prof. Steele decided then that he would need to shift his focus from his own teaching to his students’ learning. That meant first, he had to cut back on the length of his lectures, and instead, give his students time to voice their questions and opinions, not just to him, their professor, but also to each other. Sometimes, Prof. Steele would divide up his class into small discussion groups so that the students would have the opportunity to interact among themselves on a person-to-person level. To ensure the quality of in-class discussions, Prof. Steele assigned more reading and writing assignments. Surprisingly, the students were motivated to complete the now longer homework. But in fact, that was not so surprising. The students were willing to work harder because they knew they would be given the chance in class to demonstrate their own grasp of the material, and share their own thoughts with their professor and their classmates. Increased assignments meant not only that the students needed to spend more hours studying, but also that Prof. Steele now had many more papers to correct and to give feedback on. But surely enough, his students were learning much more now and had become more involved in their own learning. Prof. Steele decided to call this type of learning “active learning,” whereby students learn to think for themselves. Prof. Steele sometimes tells his students, not completely in jest, “Don’t believe me!” He wants to make sure that his students learn to make their own choices and judgments, and not to be afraid of disagreeing with or questioning their teachers, newspaper reports, and any other seemingly authoritative source of information.
3-c. Deeper Engagement
When Prof. Steele was appointed Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at ICU and it was time for him to lead and implement a major reform to institute an undergraduate liberal arts program, one of the crucial changes he decided to spearhead was the diffusion of “active learning” throughout the undergraduate courses on campus. This was also where he encountered the most resistance, not from students, but from the faculty. Experienced faculty members were more likely than the less experienced faculty to refuse to renew their teaching styles to make them more amenable to “active learning.” Perhaps, as the saying goes, it is much more difficult to “unlearn” than to learn. It is interesting to note, too, that as much as “liberal arts” in popular discourse today may imply cross- and inter-disciplinary breadth, the kind of “liberal arts” that Prof. Steele advocated also changes the way each separate discipline is taught, by actually enforcing deeper engagement with the material and deeper interactions in the classroom. Liberal arts education is hardly just about the number or the diversity of course offerings; it also has much to do with both the way students learn, and the way teachers teach. It is not just about breadth, but also depth.
Prof. Steele also emphasized that liberal arts education entails hours of hard work for both students and teachers, who need to prepare themselves outside of class for unpredictable situations that can unfold during class. The ability to think for oneself and make sound choices in the face of unpredictability, speaking in more general terms, cannot be learned overnight.
4. Questions from the Audience (excerpts)
One audience member asked the panel how the recent advancements in information technology have impacted students and teachers, particularly from the point of view of liberal arts education. The panel responded that first, the Internet makes so much information available that students need to learn to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources and make appropriate choices as to how to process the information retrieved. Liberal arts education ideally strengthens the students’ intellectual self-reliance, but it is also true, sadly, that some liberal arts students might find ways to plagiarize from the Web in a desperate attempt to manage the overload of writing assignments. Moral integrity is paramount, and instructors may also benefit from using anti-plagiarism software to screen their students’ work. Secondly, information technology has made multidirectional interactions outside of class possible, between teachers and students, as well as among students. Academic software programs such as Blackboard and Moodle provide virtual platforms for online discussions, and at times, students who might feel uncomfortable speaking up in class find that they can voice their opinions more freely online. Finally, the Internet provides connectivity to the world and the larger community of which one is a part. Some schools have devised a system where students infected by the flu virus can still participate in classes from home through the Internet.
Another question was about how to evaluate students in courses where “active learning” is enforced. The panel responded that the objective of grading and evaluation in such courses would be foremost to offer helpful and constant feedback to students and to increase the amount of student-teacher interaction. A good way to put this into practice is to assign small percentages of the final grade to multiple assignments and projects spread out throughout the semester, so that the students are regularly receiving feedback and are made aware of where they stand.
Another audience member asked the panel how they try to stay up-to-date in their respective fields of expertise. All of the panelists said that one of the best ways to stay current is by learning constantly from and with their students. Teachers are also learners, and they do not have to be afraid of responding to a student’s question by saying, “I don’t know. How can we find out? Let’s work together.” Teachers can also consult their own students for opinions on their own research and gather valuable feedback, since students more often than not bring fresh perspectives to the discussion.
Conclusion
This panel discussion was held on February 3rd, which, according to the Japanese calendar, is the day of Setsu-bun. Setsu-bun is a ceremony, or festival, in which one throws roasted soybeans into the air to chase away bad luck. But is there more to Setsu-bun than just the throwing of beans? (Actually, yes, there is.) According to the Chinese lunar calendar, winter ends on Setsu-bun, and spring begins the following day. Setsu-bun marks the change of seasons - “setsu” means season, and “bun” means to divide. Setsu-bun is a felicitous day to be thinking about education. Just as we celebrate the arrival of spring on Setsu-bun, in education, too, we welcome the budding sprouts, hoping that they will bloom and grow. Education has to do with handing down gifts, and passing on stories between generations; education serves as a bridge; on many levels, it is about welcoming the arrival of a new season while commemorating the old.
If there was one thing that one generation could hand down to the next, what would it be? We would want it to be something that’s both useful and all-encompassing, something like an all-weather gear. What might it be? This question is perhaps one of the many questions were raised during the course of the panel discussion, and one that we might keep asking ourselves long after Setsu-bun is over and the beans have been thrown.
Many heartfelt thanks to the three panelists for sharing their experiences and insights, and also, many thanks to the members of the audience for attending. Special thanks to the International School of the Sacred Heart and the school staff for generously offering the use of their school building and equipment for this event, and for providing administrative assistance. Thank you, LeVan Nguyen ’11, for helping with the reception desk. Photo of the three panelists courtesy of Ms. Ruriko Nomura.
(Report written by Y. Yamamoto, Harvard Club of Japan)
Appendix I - Panelist Profiles
Kazuko Y. Narui (Ed.M. Harvard University Graduate School of Education, 1993) was trained in the UK in the infant and primary school level. She taught as a homeroom teacher in primary school and kindergarten before going to Harvard. She has been teaching values at the International School of the Sacred Heart (ISSH) since 1995. Her special field of interest is World Religions and Cultures, which include the Japanese spirituality and values. She also lectures on Japan within and outside of the country.
Mark W. Langager (Ed.M., Ed.D. Harvard University Graduate School of Education) is a scholar on comparative and international education, with a regional focus on Japan and the United States. His past research topics have included the education of Japanese expatriate children, cultural identity development, minority education in the United States and Japan, and discipline in Japanese pedagogy. He currently teaches in the College of Liberal Arts at the International Christian University and also serves as an advisor on bilingual education in the United States.
M. William Steele (Ph.D. Harvard University, 1976) has been teaching modern Japanese history at the International Christian University since 1981. His special field of interest is the social and political history of Japan in the nineteenth century, especially in the period before and after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. For six years between 2002 and 2008, he served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and was in charge of a major reform of the university's undergraduate curriculum.
Appendix II - Prof. Langager’s References
Cupps, Steven T. “Liberating the Liberal Arts: Student Choice Is Critical for the Success of General Education.” Published on October 24, 2006 in the Harvard Crimson. URL: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/10/24/liberating-the-liberal-arts-long-long/
Gutek, Gerald L. A History of the Western Educational Experience. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1995.
Harvard College Office of Admissions. “The Value of a Liberal Arts Education.” URL: http://admissions.college.harvard.edu/about/learning/liberal_arts.html
“The History of Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Tradition Rich in History.” URL: http://www.collegeview.com/articles/CV/hbcu/hbcu_history.html
Pearl, Matthew. “How the Liberal Arts Got That Way.” Published on Feb. 26, 2006 in the New York Times. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/opinion/26pearl.html?_r=1&_4=1
Sowell, Thomas. “Liberal Arts Colleges.” Choosing a College: A Guide for Parents and Students. Perennial Library, 1989, Updated 2002. E-Text URL: http://www.amatecon.com/etext/cac/cac-ch03.html |
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January 27, 2010 |
| Crown Princess Masako makes public appearances |
 Crown Princess Masako, AB '85 , attended an international conference on January 26 and showed a gradual recovery from a stress-induced illness.
She joined her husband Crown Prince Naruhito at the general assembly of the Follow-up Conference of the International Year of Sanitation at the United Nations University in Tokyo.
The conference is being organized by the Government of Japan and other organizations with partners UNSGAB and UNICEF.
10 days ago, she accompanied her husband who visited Kobe to attend a memorial ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. This was her first official trip outside Tokyo involving an overnight stay since January 2008.
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| http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/koushitsu/news/20100126k0000e040054000c.html |
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January 23, 2010 |
| Phillips Brooks House alumni volunteer service opportunity in New Orleans |
In conjunction with Harvard University's focus on service, PBHA-Alumni have organized a spring service trip with HAA Travels. All Harvard faculty, staff, and alumni (and their children) are invited to participate!
This trip represent a highly affordable opportunity to spend a week making a difference in with others from the Harvard community. No prior experience is necessary for either trip, simply a willingness to serve.
Details at URL below.
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| http://alumni.pbha.org/?p=119 |
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January 15, 2010 |
| Applications to Harvard Exceed 30,000 For First Time |
 Over 30,000 students applied to Harvard College for the first time ever in the current admissions season.
Read the full story
of this years admissions process
in the Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/01/a-first-for-harvard/ |
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November 11, 2009 |
| Goodbye Brother Blue '48 |
 Almost anyone who ever lived, studied or worked near Harvard Square met Brother Blue, a storyteller and street performer who added much life and joy to the local scene for decades. Brother Blue, born Hugh Morgan, died on November 3 at the age of 88. Brother Blue was born Hugh Morgan Hill in Cleveland on July 12, 1921. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a masters in play-writing from Yale, and a Ph.D. in divinity from Union School. See full obituary in the Crimson by Xi Yu at the URL below. Brother Blue's own web site at www.brotherblue.com is still working.
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| http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/11/9/hill-blue-frankie-brother/ |
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October 10, 2009 |
| Law School Alumni and President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize |
 US President Barack Obama, Doctor of Law '91, was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize " for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
The Norwegian committee acknowledged Obama's vision and work for the world free of nuclear weapons. It also praised Obama's leadership for combating climactic challenges.
Obama made a historical announcement on the nuclear-free world in Prague in April, 4 month after his inauguration. He took the initiative at a climate change summit in the United Nations in September.
Obama is the third US president who was awarded the peace prize while in office. Theodore Roosevelt was the first in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson the second in 1919. |
| http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/spotlight/alumni-pursuits/obama-wins-2009-nobel-peace-prize.html |
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October 10, 2009 |
| Thomas A Steitz, MA 66, PhD 67, wins Nobel Chemistry Prize |
 Professor Thomas A. Steitz, MA 66, PhD 67 in Biochemistry Molecular Biology has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The Nobel committee says, "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 awards studies of one of life's core processes: the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life. Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics."
He shared his prize with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (UK) and Ada E. Yonath (Israel).
The committee also notes the 3D model the three scholars created is used by scientists "in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering."
Steitz is currently a Sterling Professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University.
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| http://harvardmagazine.com/alumni-in-the-news/nobel-prize-chemistry-thomas-a-steitz |
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October 10, 2009 |
| Telomerase work wins Szostak Nobel Prize in medicine |
 Jack Szostak, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for pioneering work in the discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that protects chromosomes from degrading.
The work not only revealed a key cellular function, it also illuminated processes involved in disease and aging.
Szostak called the prize “the highest scientific honor” and thanked his co-winners and collaborators, Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, and Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
see full Harvard Gazette article at URL below. Photo by Justin Ide. |
| http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/10/jack-w-szostak-wins-nobel/ |
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November 17, 2009 |
| Book Party in Tokyo for Japanese version of Reischauer biography |
 Book Launch Party for "Edwin O. Reischauer and the American Discovery of Japan" (Japanese version「ライシャワーの昭和史」) by Dr. George Packard
Ｄate: November 17, 2009 18:30-20:30pm
Venue: Foreign Correspondent' Club of Japan (FCCJ: Yuurakucho Denki-Building 20F)
Registration: launchparty1117@gmail.com
Fee: 8,000yen included the Japanese version of the book「ライシャワーの昭和史」
Contact: launchparty1117@gmail.com
The party is hosted for the author of the book, Dr. George Packard by Mr. Y.Okawara, Mr. S. Ogata, Mr. Y.Kobayashi, Mr. H. Takashima, Dr. N. Homma and Mr. M.Makihara.
The book is called "Edwin O. Reischauer and the American Discovery of Japan." It is not only a biography of Edwin O. Reischauer, but also a view of the Showa period of Japanese history from the perspective of the man who served as a special assistant to Reischauer when he was the American ambassador to Japan in the 1960s.
Dr. George Packard re-evaluates the significance of E.O. Reischauer with the addition of some recently discovered confidential documents, Dr. Packard’s own memoranda during his time period of Reischauer's "sidekick" （kabanmochi) and the historical testimony of the ambassador’s wife, Mrs. Haru Reischauer. This book provides an important historical foundation from which to consider the future of the Japan-US relationship. (The English version of the book will be published next spring.)
Author Biography
A leading scholar of Japan, Dr. George Packard has devoted his professional life to promoting the understanding of Japan in the U.S. He received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1963. After working as a journalist, he became Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and in that capacity, founded the Edwin O, Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies. He also taught courses on Japan and Japan-U.S. relations at SAIS, and more recently at Columbia University. He has inspired countless students and helped to develop the field of Japanese studies in the United States.
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October 23, 2009 |
| Phillips Brooks House Alumni Weekend and Call of Service Award Oct. 23-5 |
 Phillips Brooks House Association's (PBHA) Alumni Weekend will take place in Cambridge on October 23-25, 2009.
The 2009 "Call of Service" Lecturer & Awardee is Geoffrey Canada, Ed.M. '75 President & CEO, Harlem Children's Zone.
More information at URL below.
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| http://www.pbha.org |
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September 27, 2009 |
| College Info Session on YouTube ８月に行われた中高生のための大学進学説明会の様子を録画をでご覧頂けます |
 （日本語は下をご覧下さい）
Why go to college?
なぜ大学に行くのか？
On August 9, 2009, the Harvard Club of Japan and the Harvard College Japan Initiative (http://www.hcji.org/), with support from the Yale Club of Japan and Cornell University graduates, co-hosted a college info session for Japanese high school students and their families on the undergraduate life and the application process at Cornell, Harvard, and Yale universities. Over 100 students, parents, and teachers attended from the greater Tokyo area, Osaka, and Nara. 15 current undergraduates and recent graduates from Cornell, Harvard, and Yale presented on their undergraduate experience, application process (some presented on their experiences applying directly from Japanese-speaking high schools), and financial aid. For the benefit of especially the families and teachers in attendance, the session was almost entirely conducted in Japanese.
The video recording of the session has now been posted on YouTube. Please find the clips (21 in all) on the playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FD5213985B36E093 The same link is posted at the very bottom of this news entry.
The summarized session program is as follows:
- Why US Colleges?: Welcome Remarks from HCJI, HCJ, and YCJ
- College Life: Individual Presentations with Q&A by Current Students and Alumni on academics, residential life, extracurriculars, and life after college
- Presentations on the Application Process and Financial Aid
- Applying from Japanese High Schools: Presentations by Rising Freshmen and Alumni
- Group Discussion [not recorded]
２００９年８月９日に日本の中高生のためのアメリカ大学進学合同説明会が東京にて行われました。計１００人以上の中高生、保護者の方々や進学指導の先生方にお集まり頂き、１５人の日本人を中心としたイェール、コーネル、ハーバードの３大学の現役学部生や学部卒業生が学部生生活、受験プロセス、奨学金制度などについて発表をしました。
当日プログラムの概要は下記の通りです：
・「アメリカの大学で学ぶには」主催・共催組織代表よりございさつ
・「アメリカ式リベラル・アーツについて」「大学生活と将来の展望」現役学部生・卒業生による解説、体験談
・「受験プロセス・奨学金制度」現役学部生による解説、アドバイス
・「日本の高校から受験するには」経験者による体験談、アドバイス
・質疑応答
・グループディスカッション （録画はされておりません）
説明会の録画をYouTubeに掲載しましたので、アメリカの大学へ学部進学を検討されている方、またはアメリカの学部レベルでの教育に興味のある方は、是非ご覧下さい。リンクはこのすぐ下にございます。 |
| http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FD5213985B36E093 |
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October 23, 2009 |
| Harvard College Homecoming Weekend |
 The Harvard Alumni Association cordially invites you to the inaugural Harvard College Homecoming Weekend!
Your return to Cambridge will include music, hot apple cider, food, and customized tours. Reunite with classmates, attend a class, and watch a movie in the Yard.
On Saturday, Harvard defends its Ivy League football championship against Princeton. Join the tailgate and gather for the HAA barbecue.
For more details and to register, please visit the
Homecoming web site at URL below.
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| http://post.harvard.edu/harvard/class/html/homecoming.shtml |
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October 6, 2009 |
| Past HCJ Speaker Soraya Umewaka Debuts New Film in Tokyo |
 After showcasing her Brazilian documentary 'I AM HAPPY' ('EU SOU FELIZ') at the NY Latino Film Festival and Rio International Film Festival, Soraya Umewaka will show the film for the first time in Tokyo, Japan.
On: October 6th (Tuesday)
Time: 18:40pm
Location: Shibuya Tsutaya Theater
Shibuyaku Maruyamacho 1-5
03-3464-6277
Language: Portuguese with Japanese and English Subtitles
This documentary was made possible with the generous fellowship from Princeton University.
‘I am Happy’ sheds light on the creative culture and humanity that resides in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Through portraits of a graffiti artist, samba dancers, police officers and maids, this documentary focuses on how these individuals persevere and
perceive happiness during economic and social hardship. In a life overcast with difficulties, happiness acts as a survival tool to cope.
Please note that there is limited seating. Information on the venue and how to acquire advanced tickets is available at:
http://www.cinemabrasil.info/fcb2009/jpn/schedule.html
trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBgBe7fzM2E
p.s. There will be another screening in Osaka October 13th (Tuesday) at Cine Nouveu at 20:10pm
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| http://www.cinemabrasil.info/fcb2009/jpn/schedule.html |
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September 22, 2009 |
| Harvard Club of Japan VP Paul Tange to Speak at GSD Seminar Honoring Kenzo Tange |
 As part of the exhibition Utopia Across Scales: Highlights from the Kenzo Tange Archive, Paul Noritaka Tange will give a presentation, followed by a roundtable with
Gerald McCue, John T. Dunlop Professor of Housing Studies, Emeritus, Harvard GSD
Toshiko Mori, Toshiko Mori Architect, New York / Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture, Harvard GSD
Mark Mulligan, Mark Mulligan, Architect, Cambridge / Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, Harvard GSD
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Paul Noritaka Tange began his architectural career upon receiving his Master in Architecture from Harvard University, Graduate School of Design in 1985. That same year he joined Kenzo Tange Associates, the architectural firm headed by his father, well known architect and urban planner, Kenzo Tange. Paul became President of Kenzo Tange Associates in 1997 and founded Tange Associates in 2003. Tange Associates, headquartered in Tokyo, has offices in Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei. At this time, Tange Associates has more than 30 on-going projects in ten countries. Paul himself exemplifies the international element of his practice. Born in Tokyo, Japan, and educated in Japan, Switzerland and the US, he is a registered architect of both Japan and Singapore.
For more information visit: Utopia Across Scales exhibition
For event details contact: Brooke King (bking@gsd.harvard.edu)
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| http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/events/exhibitions/current.htm |
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September 12, 2009 |
| Katsuya Okada, visiting scholar at Weatherhead, to be Japan's foreign minister |
 Japan's next Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has chosen Katsuya Okada as next
Foreign Minister. Hatoyama will be confirmed on September 16 and is
expected to form his cabinet on the same day.
Okada was sent to Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs in Harvard
University's Faculty of Arts and Science in 1985 to 1986 to attend the
Program on US-Japan Relations from the ministry of international trade and
industry.
Okada will become a counterpart to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, a
Yale Law graduate.
As a Harvard scholar, he is known to have strong ties with Washington. He
is expected to make use of his personal connections with the US side to lead
Japan's foreign policy on issues like military realignment of US bases in
Okinawa, southern Japan and Maritime Self-Defense Force’s refueling mission
in the Indian Ocean in support of US-led antiterrorism operations.
He also has personal ties with Beijing and Seoul. He visits China every year. He knows South Korean President Lee Myung Bak on a personal level.
He was born in 1953 in a mercantile dynasty in Mie Prefecture, western
Japan. His father Takuya founded the Aeon group, a retail giant. His
brother Motoya, MBA at Babson College, is a current CEO of the group.
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| http://www.katsuya.net/report/ |
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September 1, 2009 |
| Two Harvard graduates from DPJ gain seats in the Lower House election |
 An Obama-generation politician, Kazumi Sugimoto (MPA '92), and 34-year-old Yasuhiro Okada (MS '00 at HSPH) won the election for the first time on Sunday. Both belong to the Democratic Party of Japan.
Sugimoto worked mainly in the financial sector before he jumped into the political world.
He writes in his website that he will do the best to make his constituency and his country reinvigorate. He says he will use his experience as a financier to thoroughly check any tax waste in every corner of national account books and prioritize budget allocation in areas necessary to people's daily lives.
Okada failed twice the past elections before his winning this time. He remembers his time in Harvard and writes in his website that in his first year he had a lot of stress and felt depressed because his English was not good enough. He confesses he was thinking about dropout for the first 3 months. But he says he began to enjoy his academic life from the second year and spent fruitful years in the Public Health department.
He also writes he was impressed many students once worked but came back to graduate schools in Harvard with strong motivation to learn. |
| http://www.dpj.or.jp/english/ |
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August 31, 2009 |
| Harvard graduate school graduates win seats in Japan's historic election |
 Japan's Democratic Party has won by a landslide Sunday's election to take power from the Liberal Democratic Party that has been ruling the country for most of the time since 1955.
Yukio Hatoyama, the head of the DPJ, will be next prime minister. He is a Stanford PhD and former professor in engineering.
One of new faces from the winning party is a Kennedy School graduate, Kazumi Sugimoto (MPA '91). He is a former banker.
He will face up to other Kennedy School veterans of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and former cabinet members, Yasuhisa Shiozaki (MPA '82) and Toshimitsu Motegi (MPP '83).
GSAS graduates, Koichi Kato (AM '67) and Tetsuhisa Matsuzaki (AM '79), also have won the election. Kato is a LDP member while Matsuzaki a DPJ. |
| http://www.dpj.or.jp/english/ |
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August 26, 2009 |
| Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, AB '54 and Doctor of Laws '08, dies at 77 |
 Harvard President Drew Faust has praised Mr Edward Kennedy in her statement and said he has for decades been a paragon of public service and an impassioned champion of education and opportunity for all.
President Faust also said his profound commitment to making the American dream real for people from all walks of life, and his special devotion to higher education, will endure and inspire us long beyond his passing.
The Harvard Community in Japan feel deeply saddened by the news of Mr Kennedy's death. He dedicated his life to his country and to speaking for the underprivileged.
Mr Kennedy entered Harvard, following his brothers, "Joe, Jack and Bobby". He received BA in 1954 in history and government. He lived in the Winthrop House and was a talented Harvard Crimson football player.
In December 2008, Harvard awarded Mr Kennedy the Doctor of Laws. Then Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Yo Yo Ma and many others filled the Sanders Theatre where the ceremony was held.
Senator Edward Kennedy died at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on August 25th.
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| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/09.01/kennedy.html |
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August 19, 2009 |
| Kim Dae Jung, Nobel laureate and former Harvard scholar, dies |
.png) Former South Korean Kim Dae Jung died in Seoul on August 18th. He was a visiting fellow to the Center for International Affairs at Harvard during his exile in the United States from 1983 to 1984.
Mr Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 after he had inter-Korean summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Born in a humble southwestern coast village of Cholla Namdo in 1924, he survived a series of assassination attempts and years of repeated house arrests and lived up to his belief in democracy and freedom.
In 1973, he was kidnapped from a Tokyo hotel by agents of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in response to his strong objection toward dictatorial President Park Chung Hee who imposed the martial law and revised the constitution for his permanent presidency.
Mr Kim was put under house arrest in Seoul until President Park was assassinated by one of his close aides in October 1979.
Mr Kim regained civil and political rights but again arrested by his opponents who seized power and sentenced to death. His arrest led to an uprising in Gwangju in 1980. With the intervention of the US government, Kim was given an exile to the United States.
He returned home in early 1985 but arrested again. His civil and political rights were fully restored in 1987. Ten years later, he was elected president. He completed his 5-year term and retired.
He died of complication from pneumonia. |
| http://eng.kdjlibrary.org/main.html |
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June 12, 2009 |
| The New York Times: I'm Going to Harvard. Will You Sponsor Me? |
 An article in the New York Times on Unithrive.org, a non-profit organization founded last year by three recent Harvard College graduates from the Classes of 2008 and 2009.
Unithrive provides interest-free loans to undergraduates by matching individual alumni lenders with students in need of loans. The peer-to-peer lending scheme has a precedent in organizations like Kiva.org, founded by a cousin of one of Unithrive's founders.
A revolution in the making in the world of student loans?
---Posted by the Recent Graduates Committee, Harvard Club of Japan
(Photo courtesy of Michael Falco for The New York Times) |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/fashion/14unithrive.html |
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June 8, 2009 |
| Page One Editorial in Nikkei Business by Former Club President Makihara |
 Former Harvard Club of Japan President Minoru Makihara wrote the page one editorial 有訓無訓 section for the June 8th edition of the magazine Nikkei Business (in Japanese). The article titled 「他人と異なる」が大事：米国流が新事業産むmentions his alma mater Harvard as a school that helps develop students' capacity to express their own opinions, a critical element in innovation, which Japan sorely needs now to emerge from this difficult economy.
Paid subscription and online registration needed to access online version of article at URL below.
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| https://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/prembin/latest/292651.pdf?id=190436 |
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June 5, 2009 |
| Harvard Club of Japan honors past officers and directors |
 The Harvard Club of Japan honored past club Presidents Minoru Makihara and Thierry Porte, past Vice President Marcy Wilder and past Director Hiromi Maeda, at an event in Tokyo on June 4 featuring a talk on the financial crisis by Thierry Porte.
(Photo: Marcy Wilder and Thierry Porte)
From Board of Directors of Harvard Club of Japan:
At this time, the remaining board members would like to give our sincerest thanks first of all to Thierry Porte, past President of the Harvard Club of Japan. Thierry graciously served as our fearless leader for thirteen years, during which time the club saw a marked expansion in activities. We are grateful for Thierry's vision and energy and hope to continue to rely on him for sage advice in the future.
In addition, we owe a great deal of appreciation to Marcy Wilder, former Vice President of the Harvard Club of Japan. Marcy has been a member of the HCJ for two decades now, and was instrumental in organizing many major club events such as the University Charity Balls.
We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the following individuals who have served on the HCJ board at various times during Thierry's term as president: Joanne Butterfield, Hiromi Maeda, Shih-han Huang, Tim Winant, Kaori Kuroda and Hiromi Maeda. Each of these former board members generously donated their inspiration and a great deal of perspiration towards the planning and organizing of events for the HCJ.
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June 5, 2009 |
| Congratulations Class of 2009! |
 See full details of the 358th Harvard Commencement at the URL below. Wynton Marsalis (photo) was awarded a Doctor of Music, one of ten honorary degrees granted at the ceremony.
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| http://www.commencement.harvard.edu/index.html |
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May 30, 2009 |
| HAA Awards Information from Andrea Hoffrichter at HAA |
 Dear HAA Club & Shared Interest Group (SIG) Leaders,
Each year the Harvard Alumni Association selects three distinguished individuals for the Harvard Medal, and six exceptional alumni to receive the HAA Award. The Harvard Medal is awarded for career accomplishment combined with outstanding service to the University. The HAA Award recognizes volunteer service to the University through one or more alumni activities including a significant commitment to a Graduate School Alumni Association, HAA Schools and Scholarships Committees, the Harvard College Fund or other activities that substantially benefit Harvard.
The Harvard Alumni Association has announced the recipients of the 2009 Harvard Medal, to be received on Commencement Day, June 4:
John “Jack” F. Cogan, Jr., Esq. AB ’49, JD ’52,
Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg AB ’67, MD ’71, MPP ’72, PhD ’80
The Honorable Patti B. Saris AB ’73, JD ’76
In addition, the six recipients of the HAA Award have been selected and will receive their Awards at the HAA Board of Directors Fall Dinner on October 22. They are:
Jonathan Byrnes DBA ’80
Michael Holland AB ’66
Barbara Meyer AB ’62
Roland Smith EdD ’88
Beverly Sullivan
Harry Thomas O’Hare AB ’71, MBA ’75
If you would like to nominate someone for a Harvard Medal, an HAA Award, Overseer, or HAA Elected Director, please email me (andy_hoffrichter@harvard.edu), call me (617-496-8644) or fill out the attached form and return it to the following address:
Harvard Alumni Association
c/o Andy Hoffrichter
124 Mt Auburn Street, 6th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
We also encourage you to nominate your fellow club and SIG leaders for the HAA Clubs & SIGs Committee Awards. These awards recognize exceptional club and SIG volunteers and outstanding organizations and are presented at the annual Alumni Leadership Conference (ALC) in February. Please find this nomination form attached and contact Lauren Brodsky (lauren_brodsky@harvard.edu), HAA Assistant Director for Clubs & SIGs, with any questions.
Many thanks in advance for your participation in this important process.
Andy Hoffrichter
Andrea D. Hoffrichter
Assistant Director, Alumni Relations & Research
Harvard Alumni Association
124 Mount Auburn Street, 6th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138
(P): 617-496-8644
(F): 617-495-0434
CLUBS & SIGS COMMITTEE AWARDS
NOMINATION FORM
The HAA Clubs & SIGs Committee presents two annual awards at the Alumni Leadership Conference.
The Club/SIG Recognition Award recognizes a Harvard Club or SIG for exceptional efforts resulting in outstanding
improved or innovated programs in areas including: membership, technology, succession planning, community service,
outreach, schools and scholarship efforts, programming, or overall general improvement.
The Outstanding Contribution Award recognizes a Harvard Club or SIG volunteer who has gone above and beyond
the call of duty to make an exceptional contribution to his or her club/SIG.
Please return this form or other supporting materials by Wednesday, October 28, 2009 to: Lauren Brodsky, HAA,
124 Mount Auburn Street, 6th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138; by email to clubs@harvard.edu; or by fax to 617.495.0434.
Candidate’s or Club/SIG’s Name:
Nomination:
Note: Awards are presented at the Alumni Leadership Conference in Cambridge on Thursday evening, February 4, 2010.
Your name and University affiliation:
Email: Preferred phone:
Date:
NOMINATION FORM
Please enter as much as you can about your candidate. We are particularly interested in learning about the impact of your candidate’s contributions. If possible, enclose a letter, resume or other supporting materials and return to: Office of Alumni Relations & Research, Harvard Alumni Association, c/o Andy Hoffrichter, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, 6th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. You may also access Award and Medal information online at http://www.aad.harvard.edu/.
* Candidate’s Name:
Harvard School(s) and Class:
Nomination for: • Harvard Medal • HAA Award • Overseer • Elected Director
* Occupation:
Business Title:
* Please provide a thoughtful and detailed personal statement of support for your candidate:
Professional Activities & Honors:
Harvard Related Activities/Relatives (if known):
Charitable and/or Community Activities:
Other personal references for your candidate (if any):
* Your name and University affiliation: Date:
* Required fields
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| http://post.harvard.edu/harvard/alumni/html/awards.shtml |
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May 27, 2009 |
| Ashbery Accepts Harvard Arts Medal |
 Poet John Ashbery accepted the Harvard Arts Medal on April 30th. The medal is conferred annually at the beginning of ARTS FIRST, a celebration of the arts on campus. Besides recognizing Ashbery’s achievements, the informal and relaxed ceremony (held in a packed New College Theatre) celebrated the legacy and future of the arts at the University.
See full article by Madeleine Schwartz in Harvard Magazine at URL below. |
| http://harvardmagazine.com/breaking-news/ashbery-accepts-harvard-arts-medal |
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May 19, 2009 |
| Gordon, Oldest Harvard Alumnus, Dies at 107 |
 Albert H. Gordon ’23, Harvard’s oldest living alumnus and a generous donor to the University, died in his New York home on May 1. He was 107 years old.
Full article by Manning Ding, Crimson Staff Writer, at URL below. Photo by John Haverly. |
| http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=528167 |
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May 15, 2009 |
| Letter from Drew Faust to alumni about Crimson Compass |
 Dear Alumni and Friends,
I trust that you, as members of this strong educational community, share my appreciation for the knowledge, talent, and skills of our graduating students. Within the University, we have deepened our commitment to them with continued expansion of our financial aid programs, thus lessening their debt burden postgraduation. We are also working hard to make information about all kinds of career paths more available―most recently through "Passion for the Arts," an event featuring Yo-Yo Ma '76 and showcasing careers in the arts and humanities. This year we also established a committee to consider ways in which we can improve support for Harvard students who have an interest in public service while they are here or after graduation.
The HAA's efforts to support the career needs of students and alumni extend well beyond Cambridge. Within a vast network of 181 Harvard Clubs and 27 Shared Interest Groups worldwide, 23 will offer nonprofit internships through the Summer Community Service Fellowships program in 2009.
Today, I encourage you to consider contributing to these efforts by becoming a career advisor. Crimson Compass is an online tool comprising alumni who have volunteered to share advice on topics such as industry opportunities, work-life issues, changing careers, and leadership. It is available through the alumni website at http://post.harvard.edu/compass for all alumni and current students. Your participation can help ensure that our students fulfill their potential after graduation.
Sincerely,
Drew Faust
President of Harvard University
Lincoln Professor of History
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| http://www.president.harvard.edu/ |
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May 21, 2009 |
| Harvard Club of Japan Vice President Paul Tange to speak at Harvard Club of ROC |
Architect Paul Tange, President of Tange Associates and recently appointed Vice President of the Harvard Club of Japan, will speak on "The Heritage of Modern Japanese Architecture" on May 21, 2009 at the Harvard Club of R.O.C. in Taipei at 6:15pm. Details (Chinese only) at the URL below or by e-mail request (English) to: sabercoj@aol.com
Thanks to erciprocal arrangements that exist between many Harvard Clubs worldwide, paid up Harvard Club of Japan members who attend this event in Taiwan will be charged Harvard Club of ROC member price.
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| http://www.harvardclub.org.tw/chinese/ALL2.htm |
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April 30, 2009 |
| The Dalai Lama speaks at Harvard |
 The Dalai Lama addressed a capacity crowd at the Memorial Church on Thursday (April 30). With his trademark affable, down-to-earth style the religious leader counseled the audience about the important things in life in a talk titled“Educating the Heart.”The event was hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and the Harvard Divinity School (HDS).
See full Harvard Gazette article by Colleen Walsh at URL below.
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| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/04.30/11-dalailama.html |
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April 16, 2009 |
| Reminder to vote for Overseers and HAA Directors |
 To all Harvard Alumni:
Each year, more than 260,000 ballots are mailed to Harvard alumni both in the U.S. and internationally. Over the last 5 years, less than 15% of Harvard alumni have actually cast votes annually in this election process. We have an incredible opportunity this year to increase voting participation and, thus, overall alumni engagement in the Harvard and HAA governance processes.
The election of Harvard’s Board of Overseers and HAA Elected Directors takes on additional significance in 2009. Along with other institutions of higher learning, Harvard must address unprecedented financial challenges caused by the financial markets upheava ls and resulting declines in endowment portfolio values. Strategic decisions also remain in key areas including the Allston expansion, stem-cell research and undergraduate life. To address these issues while maintaining Harvard’s enduring commitment to educational excellence and academic leadership, President Drew Faust and the Corporation will need advice and counsel of collaborative and thoughtful alumni representing important cross-sections of the academic, scientific, business, the arts and public sector endeavors.
The HAA Nominating Committee follows an extensive and thoughtful process annually of selecting candidates for the Harvard Board of Overseers and HAA Elected Directors. The 15-person Nominating Committee reviews all nominations submitted for consideration. The Committee also performs additional research and fact-finding to identify other potential alumni candidates who can help the University through volunteer service. Using the Board of Overseers selection as an example, the Nominating Committee considers background and experience of current Board members, geographical representation, gender as well as emerging issues facing the University. Committee deliberations involve more than four months of review including multiple, two-day sessions in Cambridge. As members of the greater Harvard community, we can feel very confident the people identified via the Nominating Committee process present an excellent slate of candidates. Of course, candidates can be placed on the HAA ballot through petition which has occurred this year.
Please vote early to allow time for the ballots to arrive in Cambridge by the deadline of May 29th.
Sincerely
Walter Morris, AB ’73, MBA ‘75
Pre sident Harvard Alumni Association
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| http://www.harvard.edu/alumni/elections.php |
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April 13, 2009 |
| Matt Lauer of NBC News to deliver Class Day speech at Harvard |
 Matt Lauer, co-anchor of “Today” on NBC News, has been selected as the 2009 Senior Class Day speaker. He will address Harvard College graduates and their guests on June 3 at 2 p.m. in Tercentenary Theatre at Harvard Yard.
See full Harvard Gazette artilce by Emily T. Simon, FAS Communications, at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/04.02/99-classday.html |
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April 13, 2009 |
| Energy Secretary and Nobelist Steven Chu to speak at Commencement |
 Energy Secretary and Nobelist Steven Chu to speak at Commencement
Nobel laureate in physics will be the principal speaker at Afternoon Exercises
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Nobel laureate in physics and a leader in the pursuit of alternative and renewable sources of energy, will be Harvard’s principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard’s 358th Commencement on June 4.
See full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/04.09/99-speaker.html |
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March 10, 2009 |
| Cherry A. Murray is named dean of SEAS |
 Cherry A. Murray, who has led some of the nation’s most brilliant scientists and engineers as an executive at Bell Laboratories and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been appointed dean of Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), effective July 1, 2009. She will also become the John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
See full article by Steve Bradt, FAS Communications at URL below |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/03.12/99-seas.html |
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March 2, 2009 |
| “A Night for Benefactors of Doctors of the World Japan” Rescheduled to 3/18 |
 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
“A Night for the Benefactors of Doctors of the World Japan”
Rescheduled to 18th March 2009
Tokyo, Japan
26 January, 2009
Dear Donors and Friends,
We are very happy to let you know that our charity gala, organized with the volunteer
participation of the most famous chefs of French gastronomy in Tokyo, will be held in the
beautiful setting of the Residence of France on Wednesday 18th March 2009.
Most of you already know that the two expatriates from Doctors of the World abducted last
year in Ethiopia were released on January 7. Dr Keiko Akahane and Willem Sools are in
good physical and mental condition, given their 108 days of captivity. As soon as this
information was confirmed, His Excellency the French Ambassador Mr. Philippe Faure and
his wife offered to reschedule the “Night for the Benefactors of Doctors of the World Japan”
initially planned to take place last October.
It is our most sincere hope that you will be able to join us on March 18 and partake in our
long anticipated charity event. We will send you the number of invitations initially requested
at the beginning of March. For those who claimed a refund of their donations, please fill in
the enclosed form once again and proceed with making your donation before February 13.
I am looking forward to meeting you on March 18. On behalf of all the staff and volunteers of
Doctors of the World Japan, please accept our deepest regards and gratitude for your
continued support.
Gaël Austin
President
Doctors of the World Japan
Message from Yenidunya, president of Yale Club of Japan:
As many of you know, I've been supporting Doctors of the World Japan (Medecins du Monde - MDM) for several years. I've attended their Night for Benefactors the last two years and had a very good time (some photos from previous years attached). I know some of you have already sent in your donations and requested invitations (250+ people have already RSVP'ed) but I wanted to do a LAST MINUTE push to try to fill the last few remaining spots.
The FINAL deadline for requesting invitations and making your contribution is this THURSDAY, March 5th, so if you're interested and haven't done anything about it yet, please fill out the attached form NOW and send it to info@mdm.or.jp . You may check out the MDM website at http://www.mdm.or.jp/ to find out more about their activities.
If you are on Facebook, please join the MDM group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7503663034 as well so you can also find out about other MDM events.
I look forward to seeing many of you at the French Ambassador's Residence on March 18th.
Best regards,
Engin
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| http://www.mdm.or.jp/english/ |
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February 27, 2009 |
| Harvard Inks Loan Deal for International Students |
 Harvard has inked a custom loan arrangement with financial services giant JPMorgan Chase designed to make it easier for international graduate students to fund their education, University officials announced Friday.
The recently signed deal with JPMorgan, which had been in the works for over six months to replace a previous arrangement with Citibank, will provide eligible international students with loans up to the total cost of attendance at Harvard’s graduate schools.
The announcement did not contain further details for the program, and both JPMorgan and a number of Harvard financial aid officers declined to comment Friday afternoon.
International students have historically had difficulty finding suitable loan options, as they are ineligible for federal aid.
See full article in Harvard Crimson by staff writers Athena Y. Jiang and June Q. Wu at URL below.
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| http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=526832 |
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March 16, 2009 |
| HBS Club of Japan Names Hisao Taki Entrepreneur of the Year |
 The Harvard Business School Club of Japan will award its annual Entrepreneur of the Year prize to Hisao Taki of restaurant information web site GuruNavi (Gourmet Navigator). The award will be given at a ceremony at Josui Kaikan in Tokyo on March 16th at 18:45. Details can be seen at the URL below.
About Mr. Taki (photo)
GuruNavi was started by the entrepreneur Mr. Hisao Taki in 1996 when he saw the tremendous opportunities in applying Internet technology to the huge but fragmented restaurant industry. GuruNavi continues to grow rapidly, listing successfully on Hercules (Osaka Stock Exchange) in April 2005 and reaching the 1st section of Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 2008. Its continued success is based upon continued improvement in services offered in both the B to C and B to B markets. Mr. Taki is also known as an art lover with a strong focus on people.
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| http://www.u-netsurf.ne.jp/hbscoj/eventdetail/20090316EOYGournavi.htm |
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February 18, 2009 |
| Letter to the Community from President Drew Faust |
 Dear Alumni and Friends,
I write to share with you a letter I am sending today to Harvard faculty, students, and staff, with news of the University and how we are addressing the current economic situation. I hope you will find it of interest.
With thanks and best wishes,
Drew Faust
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February 18, 2009
Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
More than halfway through the academic year, I write again with some thoughts on our work together in these unusually challenging times.
Every morning's headlines, every day's conversations remind us that we remain in the midst of an economic downturn unlike any in decades. Uncertainty sometimes seems our only certainty. But what has become clear is that we are living through much more than a bump in the road. Our economic landscape has fundamentally changed.
For Harvard, as for many other colleges and universities, our challenge is to confront the new economic realities and intelligently adapt ourselves to them, while at the same time affirming and strengthening the enterprise of learning and discovery that lies at the heart of what we do.
Doing so will mean taking some difficult steps. At a time of new constraint, it will involve discipline and sacrifice. It will entail hard choices about what matters most -- not an easy exercise for a university like ours, where local autonomy is prized, where our many programs operate at a remarkable level of quality, and where we each have our own view of what is essential.
This challenge can seem particularly daunting after a period of extended growth and expansive opportunities. But we live in the moment that history has presented to us, and I am confident we will rise to this occasion as Harvard has so many times before. It is our collective obligation to face the situation with the right balance of short-term focus and long-term ambition, for ourselves and for the generations whose opportunities will be shaped by our choices.
Wherever we work or study within Harvard, whatever the demands of our present moment, we share enduring ideals. We are committed to attracting the most able and creative community of scholars in the world, and pursuing new knowledge and ideas with all the imagination and rigor we can summon. We are committed to opening our doors to students of the highest caliber, and offering them an education worthy of the talents they bring to us. We are committed, as part of a nation and a world vexed with complex problems, to seeking new understandings and solutions informed by serious research. And we are committed to upholding the values of free inquiry and expression, of excellence and innovation across the domains of knowledge that shape our university.
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We confront sobering financial conditions as we pursue these commitments. As we reported in December, our planning for 2009-10 assumes that our endowment will have lost roughly 30% of its value in 2008-09 -- before subtracting the additional $1.4 billion that will go toward current operations. Such a significant decrease presents us with difficult tradeoffs -- all the more so when our other major revenue sources are also under strain. The endowment has come to support more than a third of our annual operating budget. The current yearly endowment distribution -- the dollars we take out of the endowment to support activities across the University -- is approximately 50% higher than it was when the endowment was last at the value we expect as of next June 30. Tinkering around the edges will not be enough.
I am grateful to faculty, staff, and students across Harvard who are working hard to consider how we can reduce budgets and how we can explore new ways of doing things that not only save costs but enhance our operations. These efforts will likely become more difficult, not less, as things move from plan to reality. What is more, our conscious avoidance of "one size fits all" solutions means that not everyone is going to be happy with every outcome.
Mindful that compensation accounts for roughly half of our annual university-wide expenses, the deans, the provost, and I have agreed that salaries for faculty and exempt staff will be held flat in the next academic year. In addition, we are this week launching a voluntary early retirement program for which some 1,600 of our staff members will be eligible.
Our planning includes an intensive, ongoing review of the University's portfolio of capital projects and a reconsideration of the pace and scale of our physical expansion in Allston. Our task is to make sure that we avoid overextending the University's near-term financial commitments, while assuring the vitality of our academic programs and respecting the important interests of our neighboring communities.
In a separate letter today (www.president.harvard.edu/r/r/allston.php), I have described our intention to slow the construction of the Allston science complex and to reassess our plans beyond the current phase of construction This is a difficult step, for both Harvard and our neighbors, but I am convinced it is a necessary one. From now until the end of the calendar year, we will complete the science complex's foundation and bring the structure to ground level -- a requirement under any scenario. Meanwhile, we will explore whether there are feasible ways to lessen the complex's cost, through design changes or other means. This approach will give us further time to consider, when the first phase of construction nears completion, whether reduced expense or improved economic conditions will enable us to proceed with above-ground construction on an adjusted pace, or whether we will pau se construction after the foundation is complete.
As we recalibrate our near-range Allston plans, we will sustain our momentum in spurring cross-school and interdisciplinary science. We have been able to identify excellent alternative space for programs that had planned to occupy the Allston science complex upon its completion in 2011. Our new Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and the associated Harvard Stem Cell Institute, will take up residence in renovated space in Cambridge -- indeed sooner than would have been possible in Allston. This will allow our extraordinary group of stem-cell scientists from the FAS, the Medical School, and our affiliated hospitals to come together more rapidly; it will also help assure that our undergraduates have ready access to work at one of science's most promising frontiers. A second major cross-school initiative, the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering -- launched with an extraordinary gift from Hansjoerg Wyss -- will make its initial home in Longwood, with additional space in Cambridge near SEAS and FAS science departments. This new venture at the nexus of engineering and the life sciences has already begun its exciting work.
Planning for other Allston development will continue, but it will happen at a slower pace. I have asked our planning team to develop options for interim improvements to Harvard's existing properties, and to continue to engage in community improvement efforts in Allston-Brighton. As we gauge our capacity to mount new projects over time, we will also aim to think in more integrated ways about the University's space needs in Allston, Cambridge, and Longwood. No less than before, what we do in Allston remains a vital part of Harvard's future. While the economic downturn necessitates a change of pace, we remain committed to a long-term vision of Allston that will take full advantage of the historic opportunity it represents -- as a home for innovative education and research, and as a crossroads for programs that would benefit from closer interplay.
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The economic crisis, of course, has stressed the resources of many of our students and their families. With that in mind, we are working to make sure we restrain growth in tuition and fees for next year, while affirming our robust commitment to financial aid. Our various graduate and professional schools plan to maintain their strong student aid and fellowship budgets for 2009-10. For undergraduates in Harvard College, the package of tuition and fees will increase by 3.5% next year -- at the same time we carry forward in full the financial-aid initiatives we have introduced in recent years to ensure that a Harvard College education is affordable for families across the income spectrum. Since 2004, we have doubled the amount we spend on undergraduate financial aid. (See the related news release at www.news.harvard.edu/r/tuition.html.)
We have received a record-setting number of applications for the College class of 2013 -- more than 29,000 for a class that will number roughly 1,650 students. Next fall's freshmen will arrive to a new General Education curriculum, replacing the Core, and I appreciate the efforts of the many faculty who are working to populate the revised curricular framework with a new generation of compelling courses.
Following a number of years of significant increases in the number of faculty university-wide, growth has slowed, but searches remain in progress to fill more than fifty open faculty positions across Harvard. They range from South Asia studies to human genetics, from urban planning to contemporary Islam, from fluid mechanics to law and public health. We continue to plan for intensified efforts in select areas of academic priority, both within schools and for the University more broadly. As president, I will continue to devote special attention to those areas that enable Harvard to mobilize its extraordinary intellectual resources across fields and across schools -- areas like energy and the environment and global health, which involve students, faculty, and staff from every part of Harvard in activities ranging from courses for undergraduates to research activities in sites around the globe.
In December, the University's Task Force on the Arts issued a report that calls for Harvard to make arts practice and performance an "integral part of the cognitive life of the University." I urge you to read the report, and especially the eloquent introductory statement about the place of the arts in a research university and in a liberal arts education (see www.harvard.edu/r/arts_report.pdf). Many of the task force's recommendations depend less on enhanced resources than on a rethinking of the curricular role of the arts and a more positive embrace of the many types of arts practice and activity that already occur on our campus. Thus, we are working to bring a number of the recommendations to fruition soon, and others will unfold over time. Yo-Yo Ma's remarks and performance on February 6 -- part of a two-day event highlighting opportunities and encouraging careers in the arts and the hu manities -- remind us what a singular source of inspiration and insight the arts can be during uncertain times.
We are also considering how to make the most of a moment in which interest in public service is on the rise. A remarkable number of Harvard faculty -- in law, economics, science, health policy, and other fields -- have been chosen to serve in the new administration. Harvard alumni will hold an array of senior posts in the White House, the Cabinet, and beyond. And it was striking to watch an inauguration in which three Harvard graduates -- the President, the First Lady, and the Chief Justice of the United States -- stood together to mark an historic transition in our nation's leadership. The new administration has made clear that science and knowledge are central tools of government and public policy. We at Harvard have critical contributions to make in such a time, to ensure, as our new dean of public health, Julio Frenk, recently put it, that the "power of ideas" has its fullest impact on "the ideas of power." David Ellwood, dean of the Kennedy School, describes the present moment as an almost unprecedented opportunity for Harvard to contribute both to public service and to public solutions in a time of global crisis. We must work to help our students pursue careers that aim to serve the common good, in government and other fields. No less, as we face our own hard choices, we must keep in mind how our work here -- across many fields of knowledge -- can best contribute to informed debate on the hard choices facing the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
In a time of dramatic and often disquieting change, it is important that all of us remember the enduring purposes of universities and the enduring legacy of this one in particular. We are a community of distinguished scholars, talented students, and dedicated staff -- teachers and learners defined by our ideas and discoveries, not by our financial resources. Let us keep those purposes foremost in our minds as we pursue our work together in changing ways for changing times.
Sincerely,
Drew Faust
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| http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/faust/090218_overview.php |
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December 12, 2009 |
| HAA announces Overseers, Elected Directors candidates |
HAA announces Overseers, Elected Directors candidates
Appearing at URL below are the Harvard Alumni Association’s (HAA) candidates for the 2009 election to the Harvard Board of Overseers and the HAA Elected Directors.
Ballots should arrive in the mail by April 15 and must be received in Cambridge by noon May 29 to be counted. Results of the election will be announced on the afternoon of Commencement (June 4) at the Harvard Alumni Association Annual Meeting. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/02.12/11-haa.html |
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February 17, 2009 |
| HMS professor Bruce Walker founding director of new infectious disease institute |
 Harvard Medical School professor Bruce Walker, M.D. has been selected as the founding director of a unique new $100 million effort to finally develop a vaccine that can halt the global HIV/AIDS pandemic which, if it continues unchecked, is predicted to claim an additional 70 million lives by 2020.
The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard is being established at Massachusetts General Hospital with a gift of $10 million per year for the next 10 years by philanthropists Phillip T. (Terry) Ragon and Susan M. Ragon. The Institute will bring together the intellectual power of clinicians and scientists at MGH, Harvard, MIT, and other institutions around the world in what Harvard President Drew Faust today described as "an HIV/AIDS Apollo Project," a reference to the intensely focused, highly collaborative, generously funded U.S. effort in the 1960s that resulted in man's first landing on the moon.
See full article on Harvard Science web site at URL below |
| http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/medicine-health/articles/hundred-million-dollar-gift-launch-innovative-search-aids-vaccine |
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February 13, 2009 |
| Phillips Brooks House Assication launches new web site |
PBHA is a student-run, staff supported public service/social action organization at Harvard College providing a variety of services to the Greater Boston community.See the new site including a slide show about PBHA's activities at http://pbha.org/new-beginnings-at-pbha
Also you can hear the inspiring Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone at the Third Annual Robert Coles "Call of Service" Lecture and Alumni Weekend on October 23-24th.
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| http://pbha.org/new-beginnings-at-pbha |
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February 9, 2009 |
| Hasty Pudding names James Franco its Man of the Year |
 The Hasty Pudding Theatricals has announced that James Franco is the recipient of the 2009 Man of the Year award. He joins Renée Zellweger, the recipient of the 2009 Woman of the Year award.
The Man of the Year festivities will take place on Friday, Feb. 13.
See full Harvard Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/02.05/99-moy.html |
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January 30, 2009 |
| Cutler To Serve Obama In D.C. |
 Noted health care economist and former Dean of the Social Sciences David M. Cutler ’87 will become the latest Harvard professor to serve in the Obama administration, he said in an interview late last night.
See full article in Crimson at URL below.
By NOAH S. RAYMAN and ELYSSA A. L. SPITZER
Crimson Staff Writers
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| http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=526242 |
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January 30, 2009 |
| Zellweger named Hasty Pudding's Woman of the Year |
 Renée Zellweger has been chosen as the 2009 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year.
The Woman of the Year festivities will be held Feb. 5 at 2:30 p.m., when Zellweger will lead a parade through the streets of Cambridge. Following the parade, the president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, David Andersson '09, and the vice president of the cast, Tom Compton '09, will roast the celebrity and present her with her Pudding Pot at 3:15 p.m. at the New College Theatre, the Hasty Pudding's historic home in the heart of Harvard Square since 1889. After the roast, several numbers from the Hasty Pudding Theatrical's 161st production "Acropolis Now" will be previewed at 3:40 p.m. and a press conference will be held at 4:10 p.m.
On Feb. 13, the Man of the Year event will take place. The recipient of this year's award will be announced later
See full story in Harvard University gazette at URL below.. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/02.05/99-woy.html |
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January 30, 2009 |
| Blavatnik Family Foundation gives Harvard $10 million |
 The Blavatnik Family Foundation, headed by Len Blavatnik M.B.A. ’89, has given Harvard University two gifts totaling $10 million in support of its scientific and technological research. Half the gift will go to the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT to support cancer vaccine research, and half will go to the Harvard University Technology Development Accelerator Fund, which seeds highly promising early-stage research in the life sciences.
See full story in Harvard University gazette at URL below.
Photo of Leonard Blavatnik from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Blavatnik |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/02.05/99-gift.html |
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January 18, 2009 |
| John DeFrancis, Chinese Language Scholar, Is Dead at 97 |
 John DeFrancis, one of the most influential scholars and teachers of the Chinese language in the last century, died on Jan. 2 in Hawaii. He was 97.
Mr. DeFrancis died in a hospital after falling ill in late December, according to an official Web site memorial dedicated to him.
Few scholars of Chinese wrote more probingly about the language, considered one of the most difficult for Westerners to master, and fewer still created teaching materials that had so widespread an impact on generations of students of Chinese.
See full article by Edward Wong in January 15, 2009 New York Times.
Registration and/or subscription may be required for access. |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/us/15defrancis.html?scp=1&sq=defrancis&st=cse |
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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 |
 Harvard President Drew Faust and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith announced a sweeping overhaul of financial aid policies designed to make Harvard College more affordable for families across the income spectrum. See Harvard Gazette article at URL below. |
| http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-finaid.html |
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November 21, 2007 |
| Norman Mailer Dies at Age 84 |
 Norman Mailer '43, one of America's leading writers, died on November 10. He published his first short story at the age of 18 while attending the Harvard College.
Mailer became a star writer when he published The Naked and the Dead, a novel based on his WWII experience, in 1948. He published more than 30 books including 2 Pulitzer Prize winning novels, Armies of the Night (1968) and The Executioner's Song (1979). His most recent book is The Castle in the Forest that was just published this year.
He died of acute renal failure in Manhattan. He was 84.
Photo by Doug Elbinger, Elbinger Studios. |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/11mailer.html |
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October 23, 2007 |
| MEMBER NEWS: JUNKO OTANI |
 Prof Junko Otani’s new book, “Kokusai Hoken Seisaku kara mita Chugoku”(Looking at China with international health policy perspectives”, presented to the Harvard-Yenching Library by JUNKO OTANI (MPH '93, MS'94) has been published by the Kyushu University Press and can be seen at the URL below.
The book is based on the author’s 10 years experience working in the field of health development in China as a World Bank health specialist and a World Health Organization (WHO) Medical Officer in China. Several box articles contributed by her former colleagues are also enjoyable readings. This book received a top book review from the International Development Journal(IDJ), October, 2007 and the review is up at
http://asia.kyushu-u.ac.jp/home/sousyo/img/sousyo08_idj-p58.pdf
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| http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/htm/4873789427.html |
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October 17, 2007 |
| Drew Faust formally installed as Harvard's 28th president |
 Drew Faust was formally installed as Harvard’s 28th president on Friday, Oct. 12, 2007, during an outdoor ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre. An academic procession featured representatives of universities from around the world. Thousands of members of the Harvard faculty, staff, students, alumni and the community turned out on a damp day to participate in the historic rites and wish the new president well. The installation capped off two days of celebrations and convocations that are chronicled at URL below. |
| http://www.president.harvard.edu/news/inauguration/ |
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October 16, 2007 |
| Maskin and Myerson win 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics |
 Harvard has added more Nobel Laureates on its long list. Eric Stark Maskin, AB 72, AB 74 and PhD 76, and Roger Bruce Myerson, AB and MS 73, and PhD 76, shared this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics with Leonid Hurwicz "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory". Maskin (born in 1950) and Myerson (born in 1951) attended Harvard College about the same period. Maskin lived in the North House while Myerson in the South House.
Maskin is the Albert O. Hirschman Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Myerson is the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.
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| http://www.sss.ias.edu/community/maskin.php http://home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/ |
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October 14, 2007 |
| Gore, Class of 69, Wins Nobel Peace Award |
 The Harvard Club of Japan congratulates Al Gore '69 for his winning of the 2007 Nobel Peace Award. Gore said to the press in Palo Alto, California, on October 12, "For my part, I will be doing everything I can to find a way to best use the honor, this award, as a way of speeding up the change in awareness and the change in urgency.” He is going to donate the award money to The Alliance for Climate Protection, an environmental protection activist group. Last year, he won an Academy Ward for his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". |
| http://www.algore.com/index2.html |
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October 2, 2007 |
| Harvard christens School of Engineering and Applied Sciences |
 An afternoon of reflection, promise, and a bit of humor marked the official launch of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on Thursday (Sept. 20), the first new Harvard school since the John F. Kennedy School of Government was created 71 years ago as the Graduate School of Public Administration. See article at URL below by Alvin Powell of the Harvard News Office about first new Harvard School in a long time. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/09.27/99-seas.html |
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September 26, 2007 |
| Friction Between Harvard Students and Harvard Coop Over Textbook Pricing |
 Students are protesting the Coop's attempts to thwart customers collecting textbook info. in the store, without buying, for use in searching for cheaper on-line sellers. See article in Sept. 26 Boston Globe by Linda K. Wertheimer at URL below. Registration may be required to view article. Photo by David L. Ryan, Globe staff. |
| 20070926http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/26/in_harvard_square_a_war_over_words/ |
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September 18, 2007 |
| Obituary |
 On Wednesday, September 5, the Harvard community lost one of its most loyal and hard-working members. G. Peabody Gardner AB '70, known to all as Peabo, passed away after a long battle with cancer. Peabo was known to many alumni in his capacity as Director of the Associates Program for the Harvard College Fund. There will be a service celebrating his life on Saturday, September 29, at 11:00 a.m. in Memorial Church. A brief reception at Loeb House will immediately follow the service. All are welcome.
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| http://www.legacy.com/BostonGlobe/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=94005463 |
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August 28, 2007 |
| Translator Seidensticker Dead at 86 |
 Edward Seidensticker, renowned translator of the Tale of Genji, Snow Country and numerous other works including the history of Tokyo Low City, High City, has died at age 86. See Japan Times story at URL below. Also see a Metropolis feature on Seidenticker at http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyofeaturestoriesarchive349/300/tokyofeaturestoriesinc.htm |
| http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/416268 |
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August 22, 2007 |
| Founder of Café Pamplona Dies at 90 |
 Josefina Yanguas (photo, right), who in 1957 founded the much loved Café Pamplona near Harvard Square, died recently at the age of 90. See the article by M. Aidan Kelly in the August 10th Crimson (URL below). The café remains open. |
| http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519431 |
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August 22, 2007 |
| Harvard Endowment Up 23% to $34.9 billion |
 Harvard's investment managers, led by Harvard Management Company's chief executive Mohamed A. El-Erian (photo), turned in another successful year, raising the school's endowment to $34.9 billion as of June 30, 2007. See article in NY Times at URL below (registration and/or subscription may be required to view). |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/business/22harvard.html?ref=business |
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August 22, 2007 |
| Past HCJ Speaker Publishes Book on Fisheries Crisis |
| Dr. Masayuki Komatsu has published a book "Kore Kara Kuenaku Naru Sakana" about the crisis in Japanese fisheries that he described when he spoke to our club in February 2007. He is interviewed about the book (which can be seen at the Japan Yahoo Books link below) in Nikkei Business July 30th issue. |
| http://books.yahoo.co.jp/book_detail/31897475 |
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June 5, 2007 |
| Michael D. Smith named next dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
 Michael D. Smith, a distinguished computer scientist, admired teacher, and skilled administrative leader, will become the new Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences this July, President-elect Drew G. Faust announced today.
The Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Smith has served as Associate Dean for Computer Science and Engineering during a transformational time for Harvard's new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
See full article in June 4, 2007 Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.07/99-dean.html |
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June 5, 2007 |
| Big Things Happening in Nanotech |
 The June 4, 2007 New York Times Barnaby Feder tells of Harvard's granting of 50 nanotech patents to a company founded by Harvard Professor George Whitesides (photo) to commercially exploit the technologies covered in the patents, which were developed in Whitesides' lab at Harvard. See article at URL below; registration and/or subscription may be required. |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/technology/04nano.html |
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June 1, 2007 |
| Newsweek Japan cover article on admission to Harvard |
 June 6 2007 Newsweek Japan (Japanese edition) has a cover story on US collge admissions featuring Harvard University. Available at newstands. |
| http://nwj-web.jp/trainposter/index.html |
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May 25, 2007 |
| Vogel hopes to help expedite Sino-Japanese détente |
 In 1978, Deng Xiaoping visited Japan. Although the trip made little impression on the West, Ezra Vogel calls it one of the greatest meetings between national leaders of the 20th century. In fact, it was the first meeting between top leaders of the two countries in 2,500 years.
Vogel, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, has been following relations between China and Japan for many years, as well as making efforts to improve them. As one of the few scholars with expertise in both countries, he is the right man for the job.
See full article in May 24, 2007 Harvard Gazette article by Ken Gewertz of Harvard News Office. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/05.24/09-vogel.html |
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May 10, 2007 |
| Harvard Task Force Calls for New Focus on Teaching and Not Just Research |
 Headed by Theda Skocpol (photo), a social scientist, the group has issued a report calling for sweeping institutional change, including continuing evaluation and assessment of teaching and learning, and a proposal that teaching be weighed equally with contributions to research in annual salary adjustments.
“It’s about the pursuit of excellence in teaching,” said Professor Skocpol, the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “We need to put our money where our mouth is. We can’t just mention excellent teachers occasionally. We have to notice and reward their efforts consistently.”
See article in New York Times (may require registration and/or subscription) |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/education/10harvard.html |
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April 22, 2007 |
| Harvard Club of Japan featured in article |
 Tokyo's Weekender magazine has an article by HCJ board member George Taylor IX about US university clubs in Japan. See the full article at the URL below. |
| http://www.weekenderjapan.com/v04n06_business.html |
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April 22, 2007 |
| Harvard Economist Breaks New Ground As First Female Winner of Top Prize |
 The economics profession, long dominated by men, for the first time has given one of the discipline's top prizes to a woman.
The American Economic Association announced Friday that Susan Athey, a 36-year-old professor at Harvard University with professional interests ranging from deepest economic theory to Canadian timber auctions, had won the prestigious John Bates Clark medal, awarded every two years to the nation's most promising economist under the age of 40. No woman had won the medal in its 60-year history.
See Wall Street Journal at URL below (may require registration and/or subscription) |
| http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117708892644877101.html?mod=home_whats_news_us |
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April 20, 2007 |
| Protein Fragments Sequenced in 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex |
 In a venture once thought to lie outside the reach of science, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have captured and sequenced tiny pieces of collagen protein from a 68 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. The protein fragments-seven in all-appear to most closely match amino acid sequences found in collagen of present day chickens, lending support to a recent and still controversial proposal that birds and dinosaurs are evolutionarily related. The HMS and BIDMC researchers, working with scientists at North Carolina State University, report their findings in the April 13 Science. |
| http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/TRex.html |
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April 3, 2007 |
| Harvard adds a hybrid MBA degree to span nonprofit, public, private sectors |
 Reaching across the business-government divide, Harvard Business School will offer a new joint-degree program with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to prepare students for leadership roles in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. See Boston Globe article at URL below (NOTE: Registration and/or subscription may be required). |
| http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/04/03/harvard_adds_a_hybrid_mba_degree/ |
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April 1, 2007 |
| Great NY Times article on Harvard Freshman from China |
 Sunday April 1 NY Times Magazine has a very interesting cover article about Tang Meijie, a Harvard freshman who is trying to bring back to China some of the open, questioning style of education and learning from the United States. NOTE: Registration and/or subscription may be required to view article on-line. |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01China.t.html?ref=magazine |
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March 23, 2007 |
| Bill Gates to speak at 356th Commencement |
 William H. (Bill) Gates, one of the world's most influential business leaders and foremost philanthropists, will be the principal speaker at the Afternoon Exercises during Harvard's 356th Commencement on June 7. See the article in the Harvard Gazette. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/03.22/99-gates.html |
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March 17, 2007 |
| Harvard U names Pinoy ‘Scientist of the Year’ |
 Dr. Baldomero Olivera, a Filipino molecular biologist, is Harvard University Foundation’s Scientist of the Year.
The foundation has given Olivera the distinction because of his groundbreaking research on neurotoxins produced by venomous cone snails found in Philippine waters and for his commitment to the advancement of science, fine examples as a role model and social commitment.
Each year, the Harvard Foundation and members of the science community give a special award to internationally acclaimed scientist who has helped advance biological and physical sciences, and particularly their efforts to advance minorities and women in the sciences. |
| http://www.gmanews.tv/story/34630/Harvard-U-names-Pinoy-Scientist-of-the-Year |
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February 10, 2007 |
| Harvard Names Faust as President |
 Drew Gilpin Faust, an eminent historian and outstanding academic leader who has served since 2001 as the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will become the twenty-eighth president of Harvard University, effective July 1.
See full press release at URL below.
Photo by Tony Rinaldo, Harvard University via Associated Press |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.15/99-president.html |
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January 21, 2007 |
| Microsoft's Ballmer pulls out the stops at HBS talk |
 The 24th richest person in the world made a visit to the Harvard Business School (HBS) on Dec. 7 and gave an audience of 700 advice on how to succeed in business: Have passion, curiosity, and empathy.
Microsoft CEO Steven Anthony Ballmer '77 (whose net worth is around $14 billion) also shared his vision of the high-tech industry's future: It's bright. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.14/11-microsoft.html |
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January 21, 2007 |
| Harvard creates new, University-wide committee to guide interdisciplinary effort |
 The Harvard Corporation has authorized the establishment of a new, University-wide standing committee on science and engineering to guide the University into a new era of collaborative, cross-disciplinary science initiatives. The Corporation also created a $50 million fund to provide initial support for the committee's work, pending the submission of a budget by the committee. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.01/99-science.html |
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January 12, 2007 |
| Harvard submits multi-decade master plan framework for Allston |
 Harvard University today (1/11/07) is filing a proposed Institutional Master Plan with the City of Boston detailing physical plans for an interdisciplinary campus in Allston. The Master Plan is a framework for the University's future physical and academic growth and includes potential locations for new spaces for science, professional schools, arts and culture, and housing, as well as new open spaces and amenities for the community. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.01/99-allston.html |
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December 18, 2006 |
| Please Support Bernie Krisher's Humanitarian Activities |
 Many thanks to our December speaker Bernie Krisher who thrilled us with his stories of interviewing Babe Ruth and Emperor Hirohito and warmed us with his devotion to helping the children of Cambodia. Please see more about the latter at the following URLs (sorry our current web system prevents me from making the links live, we are working on it for future upgrade):
www.cambodiaschools.com
www.ratanakiri.org
www.villageleap.com
www.futurelight.org
www.sihosp.org
www.cambodiadaily.com
www.TravelWithaHeart.com
One of his philanthropic projects is "Girls Be Ambitious"that pays Cambodian parents $10/month to send their daughters to school. See an article about this project at the URL below. |
| http://www.north-by-north-east.com/articles/10_06_3.asp |
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November 14, 2006 |
| HAVE A HARVARD STUDENT INTERN HELP YOUR COMPANY |
 Harvard has a very active overseas internship program. If your company or organization could benefit from the services of a hard-working, enthusiastic Harvard intern, please contact Ted Gilman at tgilman@fas.harvard.edu for details including what is required of sponsoring organizations. |
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October 23, 2006 |
| News: Task Force on General Education Issues Preliminary Report |
On October 5 the Task Force on General Education released its preliminary report on a new general education curriculum for Harvard College, for consideration by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The proposals will be the focus of discussions by members of the Harvard community during the coming weeks.
The report can be downloaded from the URL below. |
| http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Esecfas/Gen_Ed_Prelim_Report.htm |
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October 23, 2006 |
| Joseph B. Martin, dean of Harvard Medical School, announces plans to step down |
 Joseph B. Martin, dean of the Harvard University Faculty of Medicine, who for more than nine years has fostered collaboration, interdisciplinary research, diversity, and the highest standards in research, has announced that he will step down from his position in July 2007.
see full article from Harvard Gazette at URL below. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/10.05/01-martin.html |
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September 23, 2006 |
| MEMBER NEWS: MIMA, UEHIRA, LEE |
Professor NOYURI MIMA Ed.M. '86, Deputy Director of R&D and Education at Tokyo's National Science Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) announces a special exhibit at her museum titled "6.5 Billions' Survival - Living, with Emerging Sciences"
October 28 (Sat.), 2006 - February 5 (Mon.), 2007
Details at http://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/e/event/2006/1028_plan_01.html
TOYOHISA UEHIRA's company MCT Daishinsha recently launched personadesign.net to evangelize in Japan the design tool of persona creation.
Harvard Mom M.C. LEE left Japan in 2004 for the US to produce a reading system to help beginning readers (both children and adults). The series of 15 books has just been published with the help of her son (AB '96, now a resident at Columbia) among others. See www.astonpublishing.com for details. She will be in Tokyo from 9/22-10/19 reachable at 090-1808-3338.
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September 12, 2006 |
| Harvard Ends Early Admission, Citing Barrier to Disadvantaged |
 In a report by Alan Finder and Karen W. Arenson published in the September 12 New York Times, Harvard University breaks with a major tradition in college admissions to announce the elimination of its early action program next year.
The Times chronicles university officials holding that such programs put low-income and minority applicants at a competitive disadvantage with selective universities.
Harvard will be the first prestigious US university to completely stop admitting students early in December before other students.
**Note: Early action will remain in effect in the current 2006-2007 academic period.**
**Harvard Gazette Announcement "Harvard to eliminate early admission"
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/09.14/99-admissions.html |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/education/12harvard.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin |
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September 5, 2006 |
| Celtic Dept. chair, housemaster Dunn dies at 90 |
 Charles W. Dunn, the Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures Emeritus, died July 24 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston at the age of 90.
Chairman of the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures from 1963 until his retirement in 1984 and master of Quincy House from 1966 to 1981, Dunn was renowned for his teaching, his scholarship, and for his engaging and convivial personality. |
| http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/08.24/99-dunn.html |
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