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May-June 2008
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BreviaGreen GoalsA new task force, appointed by President Drew Faust on February 27, will examine Harvard’s greenhouse-gas emissions and recommend University goals for reducing them; it is to report by the end of the academic year. Brooks professor of international science public policy and human development William C. Clark is chair; Thomas Vautin, associate vice president for facilities and environmental services, is vice chair. Details about the task force mission and its membership are available at www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/02.28/99-sustainability.html. Threatened Treasures
Photograph by Rose Lincoln/Harvard News Office Many rare drawings, posters, and archived documents from the Harvard Theatre Collection as well as Houghton Library holdings were damaged when a large drainpipe ruptured in Pusey Library during heavy rain on the night of March 8, sending more than 500 gallons of water into the stacks. Thomas Horrocks, associate librarian for collections at Houghton, surveyed preservation efforts (above); the destruction would have been worse had the Harvard College Library not arranged for security staff to conduct extra checks of the stacks following weekend flood-watch warnings from the National Weather Service. Endowments ProfiledHarvard reports that just 17 percent of its $34.9-billion endowment is truly unrestricted by donors. For Stanford and Princeton (which posted their reports on line; Harvard did not), the comparable proportions are nearly 25 percent and “approximately 30 percent.” Those were among the interesting tidbits revealed in February, when more than 100 universities and colleges responded to queries from U.S. Senate Finance Committee members Max Baucus and Charles Grassley concerning the size, growth, management, and use of their endowments. The senators have been exploring whether the institutions’ spending policies and financial aid are, in their view, consistent with recent strong endowment growth and tax-exempt status—perhaps with an eye to legislating mandatory annual payouts of 5 percent or so.
Life-Sciences ShortfallHarvard and six other research institutions have published “A Broken Pipeline?” (www.brokenpipeline.org), a report on the consequences for science of five years of flat funding for the National Institutes of Health, the principal source of grants for biomedical research. On March 11, President Drew Faust, the Johns Hopkins medical-school dean, and an Ohio State biologist, testified about the problem before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Young researchers, Faust said, “see a future defined by new limits—not in ideas, energy, intelligence, or enthusiasm—but in opportunity.” If not corrected, “[O]ur position as the primary destination for the best and brightest researchers from around the world may be challenged.” One example of that challenge emerged a week earlier as Berkeley, Stanford, and the University of Texas each signed multimillion-dollar agreements with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology—opening in Saudi Arabia in 2009—to help it recruit faculty members and collaborate on research; one attraction is the new institution’s $10-billion endowment, which promises ample research funds. In the United States, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute pledged $300 million to underwrite the early research of 70 promising young biomedical faculty members nationwide.
Disease digitized.
Image courtesy of Imaging Services, Harvard College Library Understanding of disease evolved dramatically with the advent of modern germ theory in the final third of the nineteenth century. Before then, individual susceptibilities—not disease-causing agents—were thought to drive many illnesses. A new University Library Open Collections offering, “Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics,” now examines in rich detail (500,000 pages of books, serials, manuscripts, and images) medicinal beliefs about miasmas, malign bad smells, and other issues (sin, for instance), while exploring cholera, smallpox, influenza, yellow fever, and more. Shown here: Fighting pneumonic plague in Manchuria. Access the collection at http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion. Other on-line archives cover working women and immigration to the United States; a collection of materials on Islam will appear in late 2008.
Nota BenePrice check. Harvard College tuition, room, board, and fees for 2008-2009 will rise to $47,215, an increase of 3.5 percent (compared to last year’s 4.5 percent increase). Need-based scholarship aid will grow substantially—by 21.4 percent—to $125 million. Princeton raised its term bill 3.9 percent, while Yale committed to an increase of 2.2 percent (in line with core consumer price inflation). Renovations recommended. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) has begun planning a major renovation of the 12 undergraduate residential houses, a process that may take as long as 15 years. The condition of four Houses—Dunster, Leverett, Lowell, and Mather—has been assessed; the remaining eight will be evaluated during the next several months. FAS dean Michael D. Smith is appointing a House Program Planning Committee of faculty and staff members and students “to examine the mission and purpose of House life and to develop an architectural space plan for the House system.” 1 | 2 | continued >  
 
 
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