Featured series 
Month: September 2009
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Campus & Community
Around the Schools: Faculty of Arts and Sciences
What’s small, four-legged, and leaves dusty paw prints on telescope mirrors? That’s what astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian’s Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona were trying to find out.
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Campus & Community
Putt, putt, putting green to work
Every day and all year round, Adams House dining hall general manager David A. Seley commutes to Harvard on a moped — a lesson in green transportation that he hopes engenders thought and promotes action.
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Campus & Community
Around the Schools: Harvard School of Public Health
A new center focusing on mathematical modeling of drug resistance, seasonal infectious diseases, and intervention allocation will be established at the Harvard School of Public Health.
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Campus & Community
New Crimson Kids Program offers free football and more
Harvard University is kicking off the 2009 football season with a new “Crimson Kids” program.
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Campus & Community
Around the Schools: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
President Drew Faust and FAS Dean Mike Smith welcomed Cherry A. Murray as the new dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences with a formal reception on Sept. 8. Murray began her post as dean on July 1.
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Nation & World
Harvard joins in support for open-access publication
Five of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning — Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley—announced their joint commitment to a compact for open-access publication.
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Campus & Community
FAS ends fiscal year under budget
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has ended fiscal 2009 under budget by $6 million after targeted budget cuts were implemented and current-use financial gifts to the endowment increased.
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Campus & Community
$100,000 in grants available for community projects
The second round of Harvard Allston Partnership Grant Funds totaling $100,000 are now available to community members and nonprofit groups to help support neighborhood improvement projects, cultural enrichment, and education programs benefiting the North Allston/North Brighton community.
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Campus & Community
Breakthrough on Open Access
On Monday, Harvard University was among five leading universities that announced a new “Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity” pledge to develop systems to pay open access journals for the articles they publish by the institutions’ scholars.
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Campus & Community
A Free Lesson in Justice from Harvard Professor Michael Sandel
Is it ethical to torture a suspect to get information? Is it all right to steal a drug that your child needs to survive? Should we tax the rich to…
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Campus & Community
Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 4
In today’s installment, he discusses how the admissions committee weighs the essay portion of the application, and tracks admissions decisions long after the applicant in question has graduated Harvard.
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Health
Transition from egg-laying to live-born
A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive in open oceans.
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Science & Tech
Genetic sex determination let ancient species adapt to ocean life
A new analysis of extinct sea creatures suggests that the transition from egg-laying to live-born young opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed these ancient species to adapt to and thrive…
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Arts & Culture
Longfellow online exhibition recognized by ACRL
The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section has selected the online exhibition “Public Poet, Private Man: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at 200” as a winner of the 2009 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab “American Book Prices Current” Exhibition Award.
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Arts & Culture
Harvard Film Archive acquires Just Film Stills
Lothar and Eva Just have recently made their collection of film stills and other publicity materials available to the Harvard Film Archive (HFA).
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Campus & Community
Harvard University to offer groundbreaking doctoral program for education leaders
Harvard University today announced the launch of a new, practice-based doctoral program to prepare graduates for senior leadership roles in school districts, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector.
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Nation & World
Kudos, criticisms for U.S. Constitution
In honor of Constitution Day, a panel of constitutional scholars will discuss the historic document’s merits and shortcomings. The event will also include a conversation between retired U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter and Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of Law.
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Campus & Community
Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean: Part 3
In today’s installment, William R. Fitzsimmons discusses how the admissions committee considers extracurricular activities (as with anything in admissions, there is no one-size-fits-all approach), as well as the importance of teacher and counselor recommendations. (Such references, the dean writes below, are sometimes projected onto a screen during committee deliberations, so that all can see them.)
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Campus & Community
Harvard ed school offers 1st new degree since 1935
Citing what it calls a “leadership deficit” in the nation’s schools, Harvard University is introducing a doctoral education program aimed at attracting top talent to transform the U.S. education system by shaking up the status quo.
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Campus & Community
Harvard to offer a doctorate in education leadership
The Harvard Graduate School of Education will announce today that it will offer a new, tuition-free doctoral degree in education leadership, its first new degree in 74 years.
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Campus & Community
Is all that scanning putting us at risk?
Last year, when Dr. Aaron Sodickson and his colleagues counted the number of medical scans patients underwent in the emergency room at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, some patients clearly stood out. One 45-year-old woman with a history of kidney stones had 70 CT scans over 22 years.
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Campus & Community
Is Happiness Catching?
Nicholas Christakis began taking a new look at this question in 2000 after an experience visiting terminally ill patients in the working-class neighborhoods of Chicago.
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Nation & World
Firm allies, past and present
In a rare double ambassadorial appearance to Harvard, moderated by Graham Allison, ambassadors Han Duck-soo of South Korea and Kathleen Stephens of the United States reflect on the U.S.-South alliance, and what might put it at risk.
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Campus & Community
Grazing rights
In honor of his retirement from the Divinity School’s Hollis Chair, Harvey Cox exercised his right to graze a cow in Harvard Yard.
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Campus & Community
Deep into Harvard’s roots
Fall 2009 archaeology dig in Harvard Yard kicked off with a ceremony involving regional Native American leaders.
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Campus & Community
Harvard unleashes a historic sacred cow
Retiring Harvard professor Harvey Cox, who for 44 years has held the oldest endowed chair at a US university finally lay claim to the Hollis Professor of Divinity’s centuries-old right to graze his cow in Harvard Yard, which a colleague of his said was the equivalent of parking privileges in the 1700s.
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Campus & Community
The first tailors? Researchers find ancient fiber
“Making strings and ropes is a sophisticated invention,” said Ofer Bar-Yosef, a professor of prehistoric archaeology at Harvard University. “They might have used this fiber to create parts of clothing, ropes, or baskets — for items that were mainly used for domestic activities.” The fibers were discovered in an analysis of clay deposits in Dzudzuana…
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Campus & Community
Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard’s Dean, Part 1
Over the last two days, The Choice has fielded nearly 900 questions for William R. Fitzsimmons, the longtime dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard.
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Campus & Community
Harvard Management Company announces fiscal 2009 results
Harvard University’s endowment declined 27.3 percent during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, one of the most challenging periods in modern times for financial markets.
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Campus & Community
Fundraising results signal continued strength
Despite a global economic downturn, Harvard University raised $602 million through fundraising efforts in fiscal year 2009.