May-June 2006 > John Harvard's Journal

Yesterday's News

Yesterday’s News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

 1926 The annual picture-taking of freshmen and seniors in front of Widener breaks up when the former, ordered off the steps by the latter, counterattack with eggs.

 1931 A.E. Hindmarsh, assistant dean of the College, reveals that average student expenses for an academic year have risen from $510 in 1900 to $1,200 in 1930, “for the same reason that the $12 suit of clothes of that day now costs $50.”

 1941 For the first time, a newly inaugurated president and vice president both hold Harvard degrees: Franklin D. Roosevelt ’04, LL.D. ’29, and Henry A. Wallace, LL.D. ’35. (In a campaign speech, Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie had told voters, “We’ve had enough of Harvard; let’s have a little of Illinois and Indiana common sense.”)

 1946 A Crimson editorial attacks the University’s decision to ban Radcliffe students from the Memorial Church choir at the end of the current semester after having permitted a mixed chorus for three years.

 1951 Faculty and students debate the role of religion at Harvard, discussing whether the University should offer more religion courses and whether a University Chaplain should be hired to offer counseling to students.

 1956 The Bulletin notes that “one of the freshman entries in the Yard has whiled away the long and lazy reading period days” by nailing its proctor in his room. “The energy displayed by these freshmen,” report the editors, “seems to proctors to point to the need of therapeutic psychiatry at Harvard.”

 1971 The Committee on the Status of Women in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences reports that women remain at a significant disadvantage in University hiring procedures and suggests remedies.

 1986 Anti-apartheid activist Gay Seidman ’78 (who was the first woman president of the Crimson) becomes the first woman elected as a petition candidate to the Board of Overseers. At 29, she is also the youngest board member in recent history.