Robinson. Mary Lee

Commencement Speakers

Mary Robinson, LL.M. '68, former president of Ireland and now the UN high commissioner for human rights, will be the principal speaker at the annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association on Commencement day, June 4. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak at the Medical School on that day and Elizabeth Dole, M.A.T. '60, J.D. '65, president of the American Red Cross, at the Kennedy School of Government on June 3. (Dole follows close behind former president George Bush, at the Kennedy School May 28.)

The Tuition Tab

Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges will charge $31,132 for the 1998-1999 academic year--3.5 percent, or $1,052, above the current undergraduate tuition, room, board, and fees. The rate of increase is the lowest in percentage terms in 30 years. The College's financial-aid strategy is discussed in detail in Faster Track on Financial Aid.

Photograph by Ken Winokur

Admissions Address. Eight Garden Street may soon be a less meaningful address for applicants to Harvard and Radcliffe and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Undergraduate admissions and financial aid and the entire GSAS administration have been housed in Byerly Hall, which defines the northeastern edge of Radcliffe Yard, under a 25-year lease from Radcliffe. That agreement expires this summer; the interested parties are discussing the financial terms and duration of a possible extension. If no lease is forthcoming, FAS planners--facing the cost of alternate sites in the tight Cambridge market and the space required (40,000 square feet)--have begun exploring conversion of Hemenway Gymnasium, to the left of the discus thrower above and directly across the Cambridge Common, for office use. Would that subliminally make Harvard more attractive to scholar-athletes? No one knows. But it would inconvenience law and other graduate students housed nearby who are interested in breaking a sweat.

Name the Coaches

As the faculties pursue new professorships and endowed chairs through the University Campaign, a new kind of naming has come into vogue. Several College coaching positions have been endowed (at $2 million apiece). The most recent, in honor of the team's centennial ("A Century on Ice," January-February, page 82), is men's hockey, courtesy of Robert D. Ziff '88, a fan. Previous coaching endowments include, respectively: baseball, Joseph J. O'Donnell '67, M.B.A. '71; football, Thomas F. Stephenson '64, M.B.A. '66; men's crew, Robert G. Stone Jr. '45 and family; and men's soccer, Virginia B. and James O. Welch Jr. '52. Topping things off, the athletic director's position has itself been endowed by John D. Nichols Jr. '53, M.B.A. '55. Beyond their impact on the sports program, creation of these endowed positions releases unrestricted funds that can be applied to other athletic and academic uses.

Internet Update

Those Internet guys move fast. Lawrence Lessig, who joined the Law School's faculty last summer ("Harvard Portrait," November-December 1997, page 67), is now the first Berkman professor for entrepreneurial legal studies. His chair, and the school's Center for Internet and Society, were endowed by a $5.4-million gift and bequest from Lillian R. and Jack N. Berkman '25, J.D. '29, an entrepreneur in the communications industry. The center ("http://cyber.harvard.edu") has just offered the school's first free worldwide course, on privacy in cyberspace, taught by Arthur R. Miller, LL.B. '58, Bromley professor of law. Meanwhile, another Crimson cast member has joined the warring sides in the Microsoft antitrust case (see "Internet Spoken Here," March-April, page 64). Jeffrey Blattner, J.D. '80, has become the Justice Department's special counsel for information technology.

Changing of the Guard

The new co-masters of Lowell House are Diana L. Eck, Ph.D. '76, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies, and Dorothy A. Austin, Th.D. '81, Ed '94, an Episcopal minister and associate professor of psychology and religion at Drew University. Eck and Austin succeed Arnold professor of science William H. Bossert '59, Ph.D. '63, and Mary Lee Bossert, who step down in June after 23 years of service.

At Leverett House, scientist succeeds scientist, as Howard Georgi '67, JF '76, and Ann B. Georgi prepare to follow Cabot professor of the natural sciences John E. Dowling '57, Ph.D. '61, and Judy Dowling, A.M. '89. Howard Georgi is Mallinckrodt professor of physics and senior fellow in the Society of Fellows. Ann Georgi works in cellular biology at the Medical School.

Development Departure

Susan K. Feagin, director of University Development since mid 1996, and before that associate dean for development in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is moving west, to become the University of Michigan's vice president for development. As of February 28 of this year, Harvard's $2.1-billion University Campaign had raised $1.78 billion--$520 million more than was in hand when Feagin assumed responsibility for the development office. Thomas Reardon, vice president for alumni affairs and development, hailed Feagin for her "key role in the planning and successful execution of the largest fundraising campaign in the history of higher education."

The Envelope, Please

U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings of graduate and professional schools March 2. Harvard Business School tied for first place with Stanford. Harvard Medical School won an undisputed first-place score, followed by Johns Hopkins. Harvard Law once again trailed Yale, and was ranked second, tied with Stanford. The Kennedy School trailed only Syracuse in public affairs, and the Graduate School of Education was ranked third, behind co-leaders Columbia Teachers College and University of California-Berkeley.

Nota Bene

Landmark. Professor of education Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Ed.D. '72, BI '78, has become the first holder of the first en-dowed professorship in Harvard history named for an African-American woman--Lawrence-Lightfoot herself. In accordance with Harvard policy, however, the chair will not bear her name until after her retirement. For now, she is the Emily Hargroves Fisher professor of education, recognizing the $1-million gift by Fisher, Ed.M. '61, toward endowing the chair.

On the docket. Claiming that Harvard negligence caused her death, the family of Trang Phuong Ho '96, who was stabbed to death May 28, 1995, by her roommate, Sinedu Tadesse '96 (who then committed suicide), have filed a wrongful death suit against Harvard and three members of the Dunster House staff. The action, filed in Middlesex Superior Court, names Karel F. Liem, master and both girls' academic adviser; then-senior tutor Suzi Naiburg; and David B. Lombard, a tutor. Harvard, in response, has denied liability.

Hanging out his shingle. Jonathon S. Jacobson, M.B.A. '87, whose stellar performance in equity investing helped fuel Harvard Management Company's recent double-digit returns--earning him multi-million-dollar annual compensation--is now going into business for himself. His "hedge fund," Highfields Capital, starts with a $500 million Harvard portfolio.

No chair there. A Faculty of Arts and Sciences chair in Holocaust studies, pledged by Kenneth Lipper, J.D. '65, has gone begging. After the faculty committee appointed to identify a candidate for the tenured professorship deadlocked, Dean Jeremy R. Knowles conferred with Lipper, who redirected the contribution to the Medical School, to support a program in genetics that he has already endowed.

Worthy women. Valerie MacMillan '98, of Adams House and Eagle, Idaho, who was managing editor of the Crimson, is the first winner of the Harvard College Women's Leadership Award. She will study at Oxford next year as a Rhodes Scholar. Margaret H. Marshall, Ed.M. '69, associate justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and formerly Harvard's general counsel, is the first recipient of the associated Women's Professional Achievement Award. The prizes were established through a gift from Terrie Fried Bloom '75.

Anthropologist-in-chief. Rubie S. Watson has been named the first Howells director of the Peabody Mu-seum of Archaeology and Ethnology. The new position was endowed by professor of anthropology emeritus William White Howells '30, Ph.D. '34, an expert in human evolution, and his wife, Muriel Seabury Howells. Watson has been the Peabody's associate director since 1995.

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