Campus & Community

Harold Bolitho first taught at Harvard as the Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor in 1983-1984, joining Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1985. He taught a variety of courses on Japanese history, including one on the Samurai that enrolled as many as 500 students. He chaired the department from 1988 to 1989 and again from 1994 to 1996 and served as the Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies from 1988 to 1991.

After leaving his native Somalia at the height of a civil war, Mohamed Omar has found community in unlikely places: in Lowell, Mass., and at Harvard, where he now excels as an environmental engineer.

The top floor of Mass Hall, as it is commonly known, is still used as a dorm for a small group of students. The remainder of the building serves as office space for Harvard’s top administrators.

Advising programs enable students to get the most from their undergraduate academic experience, encouraging students to think in terms of their long-term personal and intellectual development.

A Winthrop House suite that once housed the young John F. Kennedy gets a facelift, and recreates the room as the future U.S leader would have known it.

After an inconsistent season and a late win streak, the women’s soccer team has two games left. Its eye is on the prize, the league championship.

Dudley House, thriving and lively at age 20, is the “Mother House” model for Ivy League grad school centers.

The Boston Public Schools’ Greenwood Academy has shown major improvement in two years, aided by the HASI program and Step UP, the five-university initiative that provides resources for 10 underperforming Boston public schools.

Harvard University announced today that it will rename its historic New College Theatre building Farkas Hall in recognition of the generosity of alumnus Andrew L. Farkas ’82.

The Harvard Art Museums received a gift of 38 drawings, paintings, and sculpture from Didi and David Barrett’s 20th-century collection of American self-taught, folk, and outsider art.

Norman R. Shapiro ’51, an affiliate of Adams House, was recognized by the French Consul for a lifetime dedicated to translation and the spread of French culture.

More than 50 administrators and staff gathered in University Hall Oct. 20 for the first of three Diversity Dialogues, a series of seminars focusing on ways to build and maintain a diverse community throughout the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Drenching rain doused the revelers celebrating Harvard’s 375th anniversary in Tercentenary Theatre and other venues on Oct. 14. But spirits never dampened as alumni, students, faculty, and staff noshed on pretzels dipped in chocolate and ice cream made with liquid nitrogen.

Hidden Spaces is part of a series about lesser-known spaces at Harvard. This installment is Harvard’s Newell Boathouse. Possibly nowhere on Harvard’s campus will you find a place as untouched and nostalgic as Newell.

Twenty Harvard professors are among 179 of the nation’s most influential artists, scientists, scholars, authors, and institutional leaders who were inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at an Oct. 1 ceremony in Cambridge.

Sure, Harvard undergraduates have the opportunity to learn from leaders in their fields, including Nobel laureates, global leaders, and world-class scholars, who all teach in the University’s classrooms. Thanks to Joon Pahk, a preceptor in physics, students can add a new academic feat to that list: seven-time “Jeopardy” champion.

Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser have given Harvard University $40 million to establish a new initiative that will support innovative teaching and learning across the University.

Harvard University announced today that Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser have given the University $40 million to support excellence and innovation in learning and teaching at Harvard.

Adams University Professor Emeritus Bernard Bailyn received the Samuel Eliot Morison Award, the USS Constitution Museum’s highest recognition for scholarship.

Norman Paul, an innovator in the use of family therapy to treat mental illness, died on Oct. 14.

Harvard Athletics issued almost 1,000 tickets to Allston and Cambridge residents for this year’s annual event on Saturday. Community Football Day gives local residents a chance to watch a game and enjoy a free lunch. Participants could also enter a raffle for gear, tickets, and gift certificates.

Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds and University President Drew Faust welcomed the families of first-year undergraduates to campus Oct. 14 for the start of Freshman Parents Weekend, a two-day program of lectures, tours, and open houses.

Dorothy Stoneman ’63 accepted the 2011 Robert Coles “Call of Service” award from the Phillips Brooks House Association Oct. 15 at the Memorial Church. The award recognized Stoneman’s achievements as the founder and chief executive officer of YouthBuild USA.

More than a half-dozen freshmen joined Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds, Freshman Dean Thomas A. Dingman, and members of the College’s operations staff to create garden spaces in the areas between Greenough and Hurlbut Halls, and the dean’s office. The landscaping project was part of a new push to get students involved in the campus community.

Professor John Huth of Harvard’s Department of Physics gave a one-hour overview of his popular General Education course, “Primitive Navigation,” to freshmen and their families on Oct. 14. The talk was part of the annual Freshman Parents Weekend program of lectures, tours, and open houses.

A look back at photographs of Harvard through the years.

The Harvard Admissions Office has recognized select alumni with the Hiram Hunn Award.

On Friday evening, October 14th 2011, in Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard’s extended family of faculty, students, staff, alumni and invited guests gathered together for a festive evening featuring fabulous desserts and a memorable musical performance. The Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra performed, accompanied by a chorus of over a hundred student voices followed by a solo performance by our own international celebrity cellist, Yo-Yo Ma ‘76.

Harvard writers and photographers ventured to all corners of the campus and captured the University’s 375th anniversary celebration.

Harvard names Fareed Zakaria, an alumnus who is a thought leader on international affairs, as principal speaker for the 361st Commencement in May.