Campus & Community

Ellen Condliffe Lagemann (right), in her second day as dean of the Graduate School of Education, visited the Cambridge Harvard Summer Academy at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Tuesday (July 16) with Professor Kay Merseth, director of the Teacher Education Program at the GSE (left). After visiting math, social studies, and literature classes, Lagemann met with some of the 66 intern teachers – students beginning the Teacher Education Program at the GSE – and 21 mentor teachers who are helping 275 Cambridge high school students excel in their studies this summer.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the weeks beginning June 9 and ending July 13. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave., sixth floor.

Frank J. Weissbecker, director of Harvard Dining Services for nearly three decades, died of lung cancer June 27 at his home in Weston. He was 80.

The Harvard Childrens Initiative and the Institute for Community Health in Cambridge released a report last month on the gap-s in Cambridges current child mental health system in hopes of making Cambridge a model community in its handling of child mental health issues.

The President of the Harvard Alumni Association announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers and the HAA Elected Directors. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the Universitys 351st Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers, in order of their finish, are: Frances D. Fergusson, 18,542 William F. Lee, 16,738 Richard I. Melvoin, 16,555 Jaime Sepulveda, 16,238 and Penny Pritzker, 16,183. The candidate who received the sixth-highest number of votes, 14,422.

René Becker has a thing for bread.

Former Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor Pearson Hunt, an authority on corporate finance whose research helped shape modern financial management practices, died June 30 at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. Hunt was 93.

July 18, 2002

Seven months after a Harvard committee recommended changes to improve wages and working conditions for the Universitys lowest-paid workers, wages have been raised and a parity policy enacted to ensure that contracted employees receive compensation equivalent to their Harvard counterparts.

As of June 13, the University and its three principal service unions completed negotiations resulting in significant wage increases for workers employed directly by the University and by outside contractors. Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU, Local 254), representing custodians, the Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees International Union (HEREIU, Local 26), representing dining hall workers, and the Harvard University Security, Parking and Museum Guards Union (HUSPMGU) — will see starting wage rates that exceed the range of $10.83 to $11.30 per hour recommended by the Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies, chaired by Professor Lawrence Katz.

Forty years after their forerunners took to the lunch counters and streets of the American South, 21 young activists are putting their own spin on civil rights: by dancing, teaching, praying, and learning.

Capping off a tremendous 2002 season, Harvards heavyweight crew captured three championship titles – a new school record – at the prestigious Henley Royal Regatta, which concluded July 7 on the Thames River in Oxfordshire, England.

They werent playing around while playing a round, because they were golfing for a serious cause.

Think of Paul Gauguin, working as a stockbroker in Paris and painting on weekends. Or of Maurice de Vlaminck, supporting his family as a violin teacher while creating his incandescent landscapes.

Researchers have identified a protein that may help to explain why the brains cerebral cortex is disproportionately larger in humans than in other species, a finding that appears in the July 19 issue of Science and adds an important piece to the developing blueprint of the part of the brain responsible for the intellectual abilities that make humans unique.

A new report by a National Academy of Sciences panel co-chaired by Harvard Emeritus Professor Lewis M. Branscomb calls for the United States to take immediate steps, such as better protection of nuclear weapons and materials, to reduce its vulnerability to terror attacks. The report also outlines urgent areas for future research.

It is early morning and a single scull glides over the rivers surface. Propelled by the rowers rhythmic strokes, it seems one with the water as it whispers past a family of geese or threads needle-like through the bridges arc.

Donald Oliver, a professor of education who delighted in debate and developed a curriculum to stimlate discussion of social issues in junior and senior high schools, died June 28 at the age of 73.

Physicist Costas D. Papaliolios, professor of physics emeritus at Harvard University, died June 6. He was 71.

Robert Dorfman, emeritus professor of political economy, died June 24 in his home in Belmont after a long illness. He was 85.

As an electrical engineer in the aerospace industry, Ksenia Kolcio spends her time designing satellites. Knowing that her handiwork is in orbit thousands of miles above the Earths surface is a source of satisfaction, but Kolcio has always yearned for more.

Emily Allen, a first-year student at Harvard Law School, and Eloise Pasachoff, a second-year student in the four-year joint degree program at the Law School and the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), have been selected to serve as 2002 Rappaport Fellows in the Rappaport Honors Program in Law and Public Service at Suffolk University Law School. Allen and Pasachoff were two of 12 highly qualified law students selected from Boston-area law schools who demonstrate exceptional commitment toward public service and the betterment of civic life in the Greater Boston area.

Harvard doctoral candidates Daniel Fried and Curie Virag have been named winners of the 2002 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship competition by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Fried and Virag join 31 doctoral candidates from 17 universities nationwide to receive the award, which supports original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. Newcombe Fellows will receive $16,500 each to support 12 months of full-time dissertation research and writing.

Each fall, wide-eyed freshmen arrive in Cambridge in droves, brimming with excitement as they consider all the possibilities for a major. Aspiring attorneys turn up to learn the lay of the law. The business school welcomes soon-to-be CEOs, CFOs, and other corporate VIPs. But Harvard also has programs that play host to an impressive assembly of intellectuals and professionals who are already firmly established in their fields. One of the best known of these programs is for journalists.

Swimming. Crafts. Field trips. Public service.

While studying a rare genetic disease, scientists have unexpectedly found a new way to detect a variety of inherited cancers.

Eyes may be a window to the soul, but Donna Mager prefers looking into a mouth. She sees it as a mirror that reflects the body’s health.

A new study, co-authored by Kennedy School of Government researcher James Quane, concludes that housing subsidies can significantly lessen the financial strain on low-income families and assist in the transition from welfare to work. The report is based on data collected from low-income African-American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white families with children in poor and near-poor neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio.

At Harvard, academic success is measured in many ways. We look at things such as admissions yield, research breakthroughs, alumni achievements, Rhodes scholarships, global name recognition, and yes, rankings in US News and World Report to tell us how were doing. But when it comes to measuring Harvard as an employer, the markers are less clear.