Campus & Community

March 9, 1857 — The faculty adopts the recommendation of a joint faculty/Overseers committee that annual examinations of each Class in each subject before an Overseers Visiting Committee be in writing instead of by recitation. Papers are to be set and marked by instructors, with Overseers essentially functioning as proctors. Thus begins Harvard’s modern ritual of blue books and final exams.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending March 9. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

Sally Zeckhauser, who launched her Harvard career in 1973 and has served for more than two decades as the University’s vice president for administration, today (March 9) announced her plans to retire at the end of the 2008-09 academic year.

At its seventh meeting of the year on Feb. 18, the Faculty Council discussed international centers and continued its discussion of the finances of the Faculty.

Josef Stasa, who worked as an urbanist for the Harvard University Planning Office for more than 25 years, passed away on Feb. 17 in Cambridge at the age of 85.

With influenza activity in the Boston area continuing to increase, the Harvard community is reminded that free flu vaccines are still available to all Harvard faculty and staff through Harvard University Health Services (HUHS).

Harvard has a new, high-technology ID card, and those who have not yet picked up their card should do so at the final card swap event, March 5 and 6, at the Holyoke Information Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.

David Charbonneau, the 34-year-old Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Astronomy, has been named the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s 2009 Alan T. Waterman Award, and will receive $500,000 over a three-year period for scientific research or advanced study in his field.

Harvard University will continue a number of programs designed to help meet specific child care needs at the University. In 2006, the Task Force on Women Faculty and the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering issued a final report that pointed to the need for increased University support for child care. Subsequently, several three-year pilot programs were introduced to target a range of child-care-related issues for different populations.

A survey of Harvard undergraduates reveals a House system that, despite the need for renovations, meets student expectations well and, for most, serves as a space to be with a “smaller community of friends.”

A draft report on the House Renewal Program highlights a residential system that has in many ways worked as planned as it has aged, providing not just a roof over students’ heads, but fostering a supportive community that frames students’ years at Harvard and inspires House loyalty for decades after graduation.

March 1, 1775 — Tory students casually bring India tea into Harvard Hall and nearly come to blows with others still boiling over the tea tax. In the interest of “harmony, mutual affection, and confidence, so well becoming Members of the same Society,” the faculty passes a resolution advising students “not to carry [Tea] in for the future,” so that “peace and happiness may be preserved within the Walls of the College whatever convulsions may unhappily distract the State abroad.”

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending March 2. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor, and is available online at http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/.

In their two ECAC quarterfinal matchups against Cornell at Bright Hockey Center, the Crimson women’s hockey team shut down the Cornell Big Red 3-0 on Friday (Feb. 27) and 4-0 on Saturday (Feb. 28) to advance to the semifinal round where Harvard will play Rensselaer at home Saturday (March 7) at 1 p.m.

The Crimson continue to inch closer to their third consecutive Ivy championship after the women’s basketball team traveled to New York this past weekend and defeated Columbia on Friday (Feb. 27), 71-58, and Cornell on Saturday (Feb. 28), 63-56.

The No. 25 Harvard women’s swimming and diving team swam and dove like champions this past weekend despite having to split up the team to compete in two different competitions. The swimmers placed first out of eight teams at the 2009 Ivy League Championships meet (Feb. 26-28) at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in East Meadow, N.Y., on Saturday (Feb. 28), and first out of 26 teams at the 2009 ECAC Championships (Feb. 27-March 1) at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool.

Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, will deliver a lecture, “Counteracting stress at Harvard: The relaxation response,” in which he will discuss the harmful effects of stress, lead the audience through his Relaxation Response strategy, and explain how stress can be counteracted with the Relaxation Response. The lecture will be in Hall D of the Science Center on March 10 at 7 p.m.

In an attempt to gauge how well the Harvard Gazette addresses the needs, tastes, and desires of its readers, the paper is conducting its first ever readership survey, which ends March 6. Among other things, the Gazette wants to know more about the demographics of its readership, their interests, and their preferences — what they like in the paper, what they’d like to see more of, less of, and how they’d prefer to receive their news. The survey is short and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to finish. We would love to hear from you.

Harvard Professor Cynthia M. Friend, the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science, is the 2009 recipient of the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry by the American Chemical Society.

As time expired on Cornell, just as it did on Columbia the night before, the age-old sports cliché proved ever so true: On any given day, any team can win.

The Woodrow Wilson Foundation has named W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Director Henry Louis Gates Jr. the 2009 winner of the Frank E. Taplin Jr. Public Intellectual Award. Gates is also the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced that seven Harvard professors are among the 118 recipients of the Sloan Research Fellowships for 2009. Sloan Fellowships “seek to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.” The fellows, who receive a $40,000 grant for the two-year fellowship, are selected for their distinguished performance and unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

Provost Steven Hyman today (Feb. 27) announced the formation of a task force charged with developing recommendations to make the Harvard Library system stronger and more responsive to the needs of students and faculty at a time of both technological change and financial challenge.

Harvard University has signed an agreement with JPMorgan Chase that will provide graduate and professional students from abroad with access to private education loans. International students are not eligible for federal student loans.

Christopher T. Walsh, the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), has recently been elected by the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) to its Board of Governors — alongside five other newly elected microbiology scientists joining the board.

Nathaniel Treister has been named the new Post Graduate Program director of the Division of Oral Medicine at the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection, and Immunity (OMII) at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM).

In an attempt to gauge how well the Harvard Gazette addresses the needs, tastes, and desires of its readers, the paper is conducting its first ever readership survey.

With influenza activity in the Boston area continuing to increase, the Harvard community is reminded that free flu vaccines are still available to all Harvard faculty and staff through Harvard University Health Services (HUHS). The flu shots will be given on the third floor of HUHS in Holyoke Center during regular weekly office hours. Similarly, faculty and staff may also receive flu shots at satellite HUHS offices at the Longwood Medical Area, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School during regular office hours.

The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, dedicated to fostering the study of European history, politics, culture, and society, has recently announced the arrival of its 2009 spring fellows.

Harvard has a new, high-technology ID card, and those who have not yet picked up their card should do so at the final card swap event, March 2-6, at the Holyoke Information Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.