Campus & Community

Open enrollment begins Oct. 27 at Harvard. Until Nov. 9, faculty, staff, and retirees can make changes to their benefits, elect a new vision care plan, and review 2012 rates and features for Harvard’s health plans.

In science and medicine and across the humanities, Harvard has a legacy of transformative intellectual breakthroughs.

Todd Rakoff Byrne Professor of Administrative Law, Harvard Law School

Thomas J. Gill IV Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School Chief, MGH Sports Medicine Service

Stephen Greenblatt Cogan University Professor

Tina Grotzer Associate Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Over the course of its history, Harvard has been home to hundreds of thousands of people who have as many stories to tell. As it celebrates its 375th anniversary, the University is launching Harvard Stories, a video oral-history project that showcases engaging personal narratives from members of the Harvard community.

President Drew Faust announces the search for a new dean for the Harvard Divinity School. To assist in the search process, faculty members from the Divinity School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will serve on an advisory committee.

Nitin Nohria Dean, Harvard Business School Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration

Preparations are under way for Harvard’s 375th celebration in Tercentenary Theatre on Friday. Wondering how to plan a party for 5,000 of your closest friends? Find out what you’ll need.

Despite continuing economic uncertainty, Harvard University raised $639 million in cash through fundraising efforts in fiscal year 2011, the third-highest total in the University’s history.

Administrator Barbara Elfman, who interrupted her studies to raise her family, is using the TAP program to earn her master’s at Harvard.

Boxing Club helps students learn to take a punch — in life

Three Harvard faculty members have contributed essays to a new book, “Social Knowledge in the Making,” to be published Oct. 14 by the University of Chicago Press.

Jan Merrill-Oldham, Harvard’s Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian from 1995 to 2010 and the driving force in developing the renowned preservation programs in the Harvard Library, died Oct. 5 at her home in Cambridge.

The Film Forum in New York City will host a one-week retrospective of documentarian and ethnographer Robert Gardner’s influential films from Nov. 11 to Nov. 17.

Harvard University is celebrating its 375th birthday this year, and we needed a REALLY big cake. Joanne Chang (’91), the owner of Flour Bakery, obliged.

To celebrate the University’s 375th anniversary, excerpts of famous speeches will play on loop from trees in Harvard Yard.

Leadership in a diverse community, unintended bias, and the impact of devaluing messages that can impair productivity are among the issues that will be addressed in Diversity Dialogues, a series of seminars to be offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

It is 20 minutes before midnight on a balmy September night. Thirty-seven Harvard varsity swimmers and divers stand in a circle on a shadowy brick patio outside Blodgett Pool. The men are milling, joshing, and preparing mentally for the 12:01 a.m. arrival of the competitive swimming season in the Ivy League. Oct. 1 is upon them.

Lee L. Davenport, a pioneering radar physicist who has been credited for helping to bring an end to World War II, died on Sept. 30, of cancer in Greenwich, Conn.

Two young Harvard scientists will each receive $2.54 million or more in National Institutes of Health grants that will support research and overhead costs through a new program intended to accelerate the entry of outstanding junior investigators into independent researcher positions.

In a question-and-answer session, Harvard alumna and chef Joanne Chang recounts the challenge of creating a giant dessert for Harvard’s 375th anniversary celebration.

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School announced more than 60 student and research fellows for the 2011-12 academic year.

As the Boston Public Schools launched a new year of learning at back-to-school nights, the Harvard Achievement Support Initiative (HASI) helped by providing 11 local schools with 3,000 bags filled with homework enrichment materials.

At Harvard’s first orientation for student veterans, a faculty panel says: Help close the military-civilian gap.

ProCor, a global communication program promoting heart health founded by Harvard School of Public Health Professor of Cardiology Emeritus Bernard Lown, has awarded the Louise Lown Heart Hero Award to the Kenyan-Heart National Foundation’s rheumatic heart disease prevention program.

The Real Estate Academic Initiative (REAI) at Harvard is offering its first round of grants of the academic year to support real estate and urban development research by Harvard faculty and students.

Ali Asani, professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic religion and cultures and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, has been named the director of Harvard’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program.

Professor of Astronomy David Charbonneau and Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Hopi Hoekstra have been named as the recipients of the inaugural Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching.