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September-October 2007
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BreviaCollege Chief Concludes ServiceHarvard College dean Benedict H. Gross, Leverett professor of mathematics, left his decanal post on August 31. He was appointed dean for undergraduate education in 2002, and then dean of the College in mid 2003, when the positions were combined, ostensibly to unify the oversight of students’ academic, extracurricular, and residential life as the review of the undergraduate curriculum began. With the new course framework enacted (see “College Curriculum Change Completed,” July-August, page 64), and implementation set to begin, Gross fulfilled his expressed wish to limit his administrative duties to five years. Along with changes in academic life (encouraging study abroad, deferred concentration choice, enhanced advising, and other measures, plus the new general-education program), Gross’s tenure saw significant investment in facilities: a Lamont Library café, the new pub in Memorial Hall’s basement, new dance facilities, the renovation of Hilles Library to make offices for student organizations, the inflatable roof over the Harvard Stadium field, and the reconstruction of the Hasty Pudding building as the New College Theatre. (Even as he acknowledged his faculty and staffcolleagues in the June 20 statement announcing his departure, he cit- ed students as the College’s “greatest strength.”) Gross said his successor—to be chosen by Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael D. Smith—faces an agenda ranging from the curricular changes to a pending renovation of the undergraduate River Houses. The new College dean will also need to appoint several new House masters. All but one of the incumbents were recruited by Gross’s predecessor, McKay professor of computer science Harry R. Lewis (and Quincy House master Robert P. Kirshner, Clowes professor of science, and his wife, Jayne Loader, the co-master, resigned August 1).
New College Theatre
Photograph by Jim Harrison 
Rose Lincoln / Harvard News Office Benedict H. Gross Dean Benedict H. Gross completed his five-year tenure, as work concluded on the New College Theatre and other enhanced student facilities. Hedge-fund HemorrhageSowood Capital Management, a hedge fund founded in 2004 by Jeffrey B. Larson, formerly a top-ranked foreign-equity portfolio manager at Harvard Management Company (HMC), collapsed during the last weekend in July and sold its assets at distressed prices when it could no longer meet the demands of lenders who had supported its highly leveraged bond portfolios. Consistent with past practice, HMC and other University officials declined comment on the situation. Reported estimates of Harvard’s losses in Sowood funds (HMC invested assets with it and other investment-management firms founded by other former employees) ranged as high as $350 million—perhaps 1 percent of the endowment’s value. Endowment returns for the fiscal year that ended on June 30 are expected to be reported in late August [August 23, 2007: press release], and further clarification about Sowood may be forthcoming then (visit www.harvardmagazine.com for updates). Sowood’s assets were sold to a hedge-fund complex, the Citadel Investment Group, founded and run by Kenneth C. Griffin ’89. 1 | 2 | continued >  
 
 
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