July-August 2001

WHEN GRADE INFLATION DID NOT BEGIN Eight years ago this magazine gave major coverage to what seemed the burgeoning of grade inflation…

Evolution will occur wherever organisms display variation, differences in fitness, and the capacity for inheritance. Humans have always sped up…

If a nation’s crime rate is any measure of its gentility, the United States is getting downright civilized. From 1990 to 1999, crime—which for…

Illustration by Christopher Bing An attentive glance, an affirming nod, a warm smile—these may sound like the makings of a love sonnet…

Hailed as a medical miracle, the birth-control pill has been lauded and vilified for its virtually fail-safe powers as an oral contraceptive…

I remember when my younger sister Charlotte received her acceptance letter from Harvard. I shrieked and performed an atavistic dance of sibling…

In this twenty-first century era of the second President George Bush, it seems peculiarly appropriate that one of America’s leading biographers…

Detail of an image of the million-degree solar corona taken by the TRACE satellite, from Nearest Star. Lockheed Martin/NASA Nearest…

Amanda Smith ’89, A.M. ’92, is a doctoral candidate in English at Harvard. She is also the granddaughter of Joseph P. Kennedy ’12 and the editor…

Edith Kovach seeks the author and additional text of a poem she believes was titled "The Father Mole to His Son," which ended…

Warren M. "Rennie" Little ’55 and his siblings spent their childhood summers swimming in the Essex River on Boston’s North Shore…

This could be where a trend starts: Sel de la Terre, hard by the site of Boston’s Big Dig, offers eight first courses, all priced at $8, and…

THEATER. The American Repertory Theatre presents The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, at the Loeb Drama Center from June 19 through July…

Only 10 years ago, at the end of the 1990-1991 academic year, Harvard and the higher-education universe were very far from their current robust…

What strikes me about Neil Rudenstine is that he has never ceased being a scholar and a teacher. He arranged to offer a week-long seminar during…

Though my most frequent contact with Neil Rudenstine has been in our mutual pursuit of a successful University Campaign, my first and still…

Several summers ago, at an idyllic weekend of chamber music in Marlboro, Vermont, Neil Rudenstine asked me if we could meet between concerts for…

University presidents, in general, find the machinations of medical schools arcane, strangely complex, and at times suspiciously devious. Neil…

I met Neil Rudenstine for the first time on August 5, 1992. I was a partner in a Boston law firm, and a mutual friend had suggested that he talk…

Throughout his presidency, Neil L. Rudenstine spoke on many hundreds of occasions, from large, public gatherings, like Commencement afternoon…

On a chilly tuesday morning, March 24, 1998, Neil L. Rudenstine and Angelica Zander Rudenstine, accompanied by a small group of Harvard…

At the first lab she attended in a course on terrestrial arthropods, Naomi Pierce was expected to dissect a cockroach. Not the familiar kind we…

To many music lovers, the name Randall Thompson ’20 brings first to mind the lofty sounds of his most famous anthem, based on the single word…

It’s a small exhibition, but a bit of a blockbuster. "Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings" focuses on a group of 17 paintings that…

It was a sollemnia semisaecularia septima occasion,* but little was made of that, and all the traditional revelries and ceremonial benedictions…

  Three women and eight men received honorary degrees at Harvard’s 350th Commencement. In order of presentation, the honorands were:…

A tipping of caps to John Harvard. Rev. Peter J. Gomes, leading, told seniors at their baccalaureate service, "All of the muses are…

Graduating seniors chose U2 lead singer Bono to give their Class Day address. Born Paul Hewson, he allegedly picked up his nickname from Bono…

Scientists became alarmed this spring when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) canceled a meeting to review applications for federally…

The sit-in capped a two-year-old campaign organized by the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) and aimed at securing a standard minimum…

The wish list for Harvard’s recently acquired 100 acres in Allston is long and growing: graduate-student housing, a museum, conceivably a whole…

On a Saturday in April, two vans from New York drove up to Langdell Library at the Law School and off-loaded about a thousand early English law…

At a special dinner in May, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy Knowles ended his lighthearted remarks by presenting a pair of gifts…

His nine-year deanship at the Harvard Graduate School of Education concluded, Jerome T. Murphy still fizzes with ideas about public schooling…

"My one regret about being an Americanist," says Lisa McGirr, who has just been promoted to associate professor of history, "is…

The first Harvard diploma in English instead of Latin appeared in 1961. When word of the abandonment of Latin came through in April, it touched…

Robert Woodruff will succeed Robert Brustein as artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre (ART), President Neil L. Rudenstine…

Consider this little known fact: academic institutions hold more gene patents than the top 25 pharmaceutical companies and all biotech companies…

Richard E. Oldenburg ’54 was elected president of the Board of Overseers for 2001-2002, his last year of service on the board. He succeeded…

Several years ago, the Jordan residential cooperatives, adjacent to Radcliffe Quad at the intersection of Shepard and Walker Streets, became…

Bettering Government Gail Christopher Kris Snibbe/ Harvard News Office With a $50-million endowment grant—its largest ever—the Ford…

True story: Three and a half years ago, when I was still an anxious, green freshman living in Thayer, my then-boyfriend and I happened to be…

They make an odd sight on the sidewalk. Rising at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, the riders don their high black leather boots, jodhpurs, hunt…

Track and Field Senior Brenda Taylor (see "Sprinter, Taylor, Hurdler (High)," May-June, page 83), ran a personal best 55.88 seconds to…

Up to a point, the vita of John G. Bemis ’68 looks like that of a classic preppy. Born and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, the first-born son…

Harvard at Home, which provides alumni with on-line access to a variety of intellectual happenings at the University, has expanded its…

It is the disquieting habit of the compilers of the twenty-fifth-anniversary reports of College classes to publish a photograph of a class…

The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) surprised President Neil L. Rudenstine by awarding him a Harvard Medal for outstanding contributions to the…

n/a

n/a

n/a

It is the disquieting habit of the compilers of the twenty-fifth-anniversary reports of College classes to publish a photograph of a class…

The United Fruit Company planted huge quantities of bananas in Costa Rica in the 1930s. Workers clearing tropical forests in the Diquís…