Campus & Community

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.

Teaching fellow receives Rome Prize

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.

Think about this the next time youre waiting for your burgers to cook on the grill: How was cooking invented? Today, all societies depend on cooked food, but when and how did cooking begin?

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige told a Kennedy School conference on education and accountability Monday (June 10) that the Bush administrations reform program of testing, accountability, and school choice is a solution for American schools that are failing to educate a sizeable number of children

In the degree chart on page 24 of last weeks Gazette, the figures for the Law Schools doctor of juridical science and doctor of law degrees should have been 546 and 8, respectively.

June 1894 – The newly incorporated Radcliffe College holds its first Commencement in the auditorium of Fay House. At the request of President Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the graduates wear pretty, simple dresses instead of caps and gowns, which Agassiz deems excessively masculine and potentially provocative.

Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) for the week ending Saturday, June 8. The official log is located at 1033 Massachusetts Ave. (sixth floor).

Lewis A. Tyler, a force for the advancement of Latin America and the Caribbean through international education, died May 30 in Boston.

Cool.