Campus & Community

Harvard College officials applaud students who choose to spend Winter Break away from campus, where they can recharge and reconnect with loved ones. Officials say that the “nothing” that undergraduates often think they’re doing — sleeping, eating well, and tending to relationships — is actually vital for academic success, and for physical and mental health.

Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law Emeritus Charles M. Haar ’48, a pioneer in land-use law whose scholarship focused on laws and institutions of city planning, urban development, and environmental issues, died on Jan. 10.

The Department of Physics will host a memorial ceremony for Nobel laureate and former physics professor Norman Ramsey.

Coach Tommy Amaker and his Harvard men’s basketball team began the second half of their breakout season with a 15-2 record and the University’s first national ranking in the sport. The passionate group of young men, led by captains Keith Wright ’12 and Oliver McNally ’12, has been playing in front of boisterous, sell-out crowds in Lavietes Pavilion.

As part of the University’s yearlong 375th anniversary celebration, Harvard launched Harvard Skate Jan. 17.

This spring, alumni can vote for a new group of Harvard Overseers and elected directors for the Harvard Alumni Association board.

Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics has announced the selection of an experienced group of individuals for resident and visiting fellowships this spring.

Charles Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry, was recently awarded Israel’s prestigious Wolf Prize.

People are “powerfully attracted to war,” Harvard President Drew Faust told a crowd at the Cambridge Public Library on Jan. 10, and no conflict draws as much continuing interest and controversy in America as its own Civil War. The historian’s job is to balance that allure with a search for the truth, Faust said.

Harvard President Drew Faust names Krishna G. Palepu, Ross Graham Walker Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for international development at Harvard Business School, to the new post of senior adviser to the president for global strategy.

The Crimson toppled Dartmouth and next take on George Washington University in a sold-out game on Jan. 14.

John Milton Ward, Harvard’s William Powell Mason Professor of Music from 1961 to 1985, died quietly at home in Cambridge on Dec. 12. He was 94 years old.

Jessica Choi ’12 and Dalumuzi Mhlanga ’13 have been named one of three winners of the 2011 College Social Innovator Contest — hosted jointly by the Harvard College Social Innovation Collaborative and the “Common Good” column at Forbes.com.

Harvard is launching a lecture and program series in the Boston and Cambridge public libraries. President Drew Faust will give the inaugural address of the new John Harvard Book Celebration on Jan. 10.

David Wheeler, longtime resident director and later associate artist of the American Repertory Theater, died Jan. 4.

Stressbusters brings free back rubs to students who have neither the time nor the money for professional massage — or who simply wake up with stiff necks after long hours of study. The next Stressbusters training will be in February.

Twenty-five affordable apartments in Harvard Square’s Craigie Arms Apartments will remain affordable for at least 50 additional years after the city of Cambridge, Harvard University, and the nonprofit Homeowners Rehab Inc. (HRI) put together a creative plan to preserve the affordability of these units through HRI’s purchase of the 50-unit Craigie Arms building.

A Winthrop House tradition retakes the airwaves, as WHRB rebroadcasts professor’s defense of Christmas anti-hero Ebenezer Scrooge.

The 2011 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, will be available upon request on Dec. 22.

The final Morning Prayers of the year at Appleton Chapel involve a message of concern and hope.

Matthews Mmopi, a recent Harvard graduate from South Africa, and David Obert, a second-year Harvard Medical School (HMS) student, have been selected as 2012 Rhodes Scholars, and will join the University’s four U.S. Rhodes winners at the University of Oxford next fall.

Graduate students and others will be able to take part in January @ GSAS, a series of more than 80 workshops, seminars, and classes on topics that range from how to write fellowship proposals, to using online citation tools when conducting research, to social events such as film screenings and tours of Harvard museums.

Donald Ingber, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, has been awarded the 2011 Holst Medal.

Harvard University is encouraging staff, faculty, and students to “shop local” this holiday season and support locally owned, small businesses near work and in their home communities.

The work of 100 Allston-Brighton children was on display during the eighth installment of the Harvard Allston Education Portal’s Student Showcase and Open House.

Harvard Law School will host a memorial Service in honor of Bernie Wolfman on Feb. 3.

Victoria Budson always wanted to aid the cause of gender equality. As executive director of the Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, she helps to develop leaders, too.

The Eliot House Grille — affectionately named the “Inferno” for, among other reasons, its basement location — has never been hotter. Thanks to recent enhancements, which include comfy leather couches and chairs, a boss sound system, and improved lighting, the beloved social space is welcoming more students and serving up more fun and snacks.

Annual ceremony honors 142 longtime employees, the keepers of Harvard’s institutional identity. But they’re more than just the guardians of a legacy — sometimes they’re guardian angels, too.