Campus & Community

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced the launch of edX, a transformational partnership in online education. Through edX, the two institutions will collaborate to enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners.

The 20th anniversary of Harvard’s Arts First festival, presented by the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Office of Governing Boards, featured 100 music, dance, theater, and multimedia events in a dozen venues.

After a three-year hiatus, the Harvard Heroes Recognition Program — which celebrates Harvard staff members who make extraordinary contributions “above and beyond” — will return in a ceremony June 5.

Faculty, students, and staff gathered at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge on April 26 to honor Emmy Award-winning producer Rebecca Eaton and Harvard undergraduate Naseemah Mohamed ’12, the recipients of the 2012 Women’s Leadership Awards.

Richard A. Meserve, J.D. ’75, has been elected president of Harvard’s Board of Overseers for 2012-13 and Lucy Fisher ’71 will become vice chair of the board’s executive committee.

Jonathan Walton, a professor of religion and society specializing in the effects of media and technology on religion, is looking forward to his new role as Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church.

Harvard scientists are participating in the Cambridge Science Festival, 10 days of events where experts in technology, engineering, and math share research with the public.

Professor S. Allen Counter will receive the Museum of African American History’s 2012 Living Legends Award alongside Massachusetts First Lady Diane B. Patrick and baseballer Jim Rice.

Mahzarin Banaji delivered the final Diversity Dialogue of the year titled “Blindspot: The Hidden Biases of Good People.”

Katherine Warren ’13 has been named a Truman Scholar for the state of Washington.

At the April 25 meeting of the Faculty Council, its members approved the Harvard Extension School courses for 2012-13 and Courses of Instruction for 2012-13. They also heard a review of the Ph.D. program in biostatistics and updates on College Standing Committees.

Nobel Laureate and onetime Harvard professor Seamus Heaney will reprise a 1986 poem at Commencement this year, celebrating Harvard in its 375th year – and inspiring a new a cappela work by Richard Beaudoin.

The Phillips Brooks House Association’s ninth annual Summer Urban Program auction raised funds to run 12 summer day camps for low-income children and teens from the Greater Boston area.

Harvard President Drew Faust announced on April 25 the appointment of Jonathan L. Walton as Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, succeeding the late Rev. Peter J. Gomes.

Rising sophomores are connecting with each other, their new House, and the community this spring through Harvard College Serves (HCS). Launched this year by the College Events Board, HCS joins incoming freshmen with House public service student representatives and public service tutors for volunteer projects at area nonprofits.

Important information for Harvard’s 361st Commencement, to be held on May 24.

A memorial service celebrating the life of Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry Emeritus Paul Doty will be held on May 4 at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Church.

Fourteen faculty members from Harvard have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Harvard men’s soccer team took on the Haiti National Team in a match to benefit the Haitian Football Federation and Partners In Health April 22 at Harvard Stadium.

University leaders, donors, alumni, professors past and present, representatives from the city of Cambridge, and members of the architectural firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects participated in the dedication of Harvard Law School’s Wasserstein Hall, Caspersen Student Center, Clinical Wing Building on April 20.

More than 150 students and family members participated in Family Math Night at the Gardner Pilot Academy. The academy had support from the Harvard Achievement Support Initiative.

A study by researchers at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard is among those chosen to receive Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards from the Clinical Research Foundation.

The Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA) and the Council on the Arts at Harvard, a standing committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, announced the recipients of the annual undergraduate arts prizes for 2012.

It has played host to farmers markets, seen musical performances, and been the site of a skating rink. Now, the plaza outside Harvard’s Science Center is about to be refurbished, with the goal of transforming it from a pedestrian walkway into a vibrant meeting space for Harvard student, faculty, and staff events, and the surrounding community.

A program at Widener Library rescues vulnerable holdings from its 65 miles of shelves by linking alert students with Harvard authorities on conservation and digitization.

A new complex at Harvard Law School is designed to pull its offshoots together, while promoting collaboration and interaction. Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Elena Kagan will be on hand to dedicate the new building on April 20.

A century of occasional unrest at American colleges reflected a time of unbridled liberty and questionable self-discipline.

A budding reporter learns to combine her appreciation of science with the joys of storytelling.

Museum exhibition designer Danielle Hanrahan always loved art and nature. A late-in-life career move to the Harvard Herbaria allowed her a chance to explore the latter.

At Eliot House, the river House named for Harvard’s longest-serving president, crew is king.