Year: 2009

  • Campus & Community

    Accreditation process advances

    For the past year and a half, Harvard has been preparing for its 10-year re-accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

    2–3 minutes
  • Health

    Growing her own answers

    Assistant Professor Kirsten Bomblies examines plant immune responses for clues about genetic divergence.

    3–5 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Print directories canceled

    This fall, Harvard’s traditional phone directories are going the way of the dinosaurs, with paper savings measured in tons.

    2–3 minutes
  • Arts & Culture

    Justice for all

    Michael Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, has authored a new book unpacking today’s most prevailing political and ethical quandaries.

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Around the Schools: Harvard Divinity School

    A new lecture series presented by the Center for the Study of World Religions explores ecology in light of religion.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    2–3 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    3–5 minutes
  • 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.

    2–4 minutes
  • 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.

    2–3 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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 help the poor? These are a few of the moral questions thousands of Harvard students have grappled with in professor Michael Sandel’s legendary class: Justice……

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    2–4 minutes
  • 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 in open oceans. The evolutionary sleuthing is described today in a letter in the journal Nature by scientists at Harvard and the University of Reading…

    2–4 minutes
  • 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.

    2–4 minutes
  • 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).

    3–4 minutes
  • 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.

    3–5 minutes
  • 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.

    2–3 minutes
  • 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.)

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    1–2 minutes
  • 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.

    3–4 minutes
  • 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.

    2–4 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Deep into Harvard’s roots

    Fall 2009 archaeology dig in Harvard Yard kicked off with a ceremony involving regional Native American leaders.

    2–4 minutes