Campus & Community

In his final semester teaching, Professor Alan M. Dershowitz and his colleagues look back on his 50 years at Harvard Law School.

After careful review and lengthy discussion on campus, Harvard President Drew Faust issued a statement making clear that she and the Harvard Corporation consider proposals to divest the University’s endowment of holdings related to fossil fuels to be “unwise and unwarranted.”

The Harvard Kennedy School will present the 2013 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership on Oct. 7 to the Dow Chemical Co. and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for their groundbreaking collaborative work to incorporate the value of natural resources into the business bottom line.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith recently spoke about the priorities for the coming campaign and his vision for the FAS.

September marked the 375th anniversary of benefactor John Harvard’s death, and the beginning of a course that uses his statue in Harvard Yard to instruct students about the realities of two vanished eras.

“We are off to a solid start at 2-0, but we have a great deal of room for improvement …,” said a cautious head football coach Tim Murphy after the win over Brown University on Sept. 28. Harvard goes up against Holy Cross on Oct. 5. It won’t have another home game until Oct. 19.

The thrill of discovery just isn’t the same when you’re alone. That’s one of the myriad reasons why collaboration is central to research at Harvard. Here, students, fellows, and researchers…

Aqil Sajjad is blind, but he loves sports. So he’s playing on beep ball, a sport that features a chirping baseball that is delivered by a sighted pitcher to a blindfolded batter.

On Oct. 9, 2012, Taliban gunmen shot 15-year-old Malaa Yousafzai in the head as she rode home from school on a bus. She was simply trying education. On Sept. 27, Yousafzai was in Cambridge to receive the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Harvard Medical School Professor David H. Hubel, whose discoveries in visual processing and development ushered in the modern study of the cerebral cortex and changed the way childhood cataracts and strabismus (“cross-eye”) were treated, died on Sept. 22 of kidney failure in Lincoln, Mass. He was 87.

As the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard celebrates its 75th anniversary, the institution firmly embraces the changes and uncertainties of journalism’s future.

On Sept. 25 the Faculty Council nominated a Parliamentarian for the 2013-14 academic year and heard a presentation on post-retirement health benefits and tax-deferred accounts.  They also previewed the dean’s…

Jazz musician and composer Vijay Iyer, who won a MacArthur Foundation grant, in January will become the first Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts in Harvard’s Department of Music.

Sarah Thomas, the new vice president of the Harvard Library, will now also oversee the libraries of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The appointment signals a move toward a more unified and coordinated library system.

This month, the Harvard Allston Education Portal has been offering dance lessons from Marco Perez-Moreno, a Harvard alumnus and professional ballroom dancer.

Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted an 11.3 percent return and was valued at $32.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.

Supporting the development of a robust campus, one that enhances Harvard’s mission of innovative teaching and learning, while simultaneously fostering connections across the University and the broader community will be an important goal of The Harvard Campaign.

Almost 700 Harvard-affiliated athletes sponsored by Harvard Public Affairs & Communications and the Harvard Business School were among the 1,800 runners in the annual Brian J. Honan 5K Road Race on Sunday. The race benefits the Brian J. Honan Charitable Fund.

Harvard University kicked off the public phase of a $6.5 billion fundraising campaign today, designed to benefit key priorities during constrained financial times. If successful, it would be the largest ever in higher education.

Malala Yousafzai, the 16 year-old Pakistani girl who was shot on Oct. 9, 2012, in an assassination attempt for expressing her philosophy of gender equality in education and who famously said, “I want every girl, every child, to be educated,” will receive the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award.

Harvard University announced Sept. 18 that it will award the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to six leaders across government, the arts, and athletics during a ceremony on Oct. 2. The ceremony will also mark the launch of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Harvard College interim Dean Donald Pfister and Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde made themselves available to field questions from students in a “meet the deans” forum.

Harvard University Provost Alan Garber announced the appointment of historian and humanities scholar Peter K. Bol as vice provost for advances in learning.

A major effort under way at Harvard School of Public Health to redesign its educational strategy has received significant new support of $12.5 million from the Charina Endowment Fund and Richard L. (M.B.A.’59) and Ronay Menschel.

The start of a new semester signals many things, one of which is “shopping week,” where undergraduates sit in on classes and check out syllabi before committing to a course.

On Sept. 11, the Faculty Council welcomed new members, reviewed history and policies, elected subcommittees for 2013-14, discussed the work of the council in the new academic year, and discussed proposed changes to the Q Guide.

For several Fridays, dozens of local artists, crafters, and designers from Boston’s SoWa Open Market will be selling their wares at the Science Center Plaza.

Harvard simultaneously faces stiff economic challenges and evolving opportunities, President Drew Faust said in her opening-of-year speech.

Houghton Library, Harvard’s home to literary and historical treasures, is more like a museum than your typical library.

Philip Harding, who is an M.P.P. student at Harvard Kennedy School and president of the Harvard Graduate Council, shares his thoughts on the “Harvard experience.”