Events

Stanley H. Hoffmann, professor of Government, called it an "absolute horror. "His colleague, Harvey C. Mansfield '53, said it demonstrated "the good sense of the American people. "There were debates about the meaning of the GOP sweep, the future of the Democratic party and the role of the far right. As the Ivy League analysis of the Reagan victory last November dragged on into the winter, a number of Harvard faculty members--most prominently, Richard E. Pipes, Baird Professor of History who is now the senior Soviet-Eastern Europe specialist on the National Security Council--journeyed to Washington to participate in the making of history themselves.

The conservative victory prompted the birth and regeneration of not a few liberal and left-leaning student groups. While professors and University administrators fretted over the hefty cuts anticipated in federal grants to universities, students began to protest the Reagan foreign policy, focusing on United States' involvement in El Salvador. In March, a candlelight rally sponsored by the newly formed Committee on El Salvador attracted more than 1800 protesters, making it the largest demonstration at Harvard since students rallied in the spring of 1978 against the University's policy on investments concerning South Africa. In early May, dozens of students traveled to the nation's capital to march in one of the largest anti-draft demonstrations since the Vietnam War years.

Students, faculty and administrators of all political leanings quietly protested the chain of child murders in Atlanta--which baffled authorities throughout the year--by wearing green ribbons to demonstrate solidarity with the people of that southern city. The Atlanta problem symbolized a nationwide concern over a perceived growth in American violence, and the theme was punctuated by the shootings of Beatle John Lennon and President Reagan.

While more than 1000 people gathered for a candlelight vigil at the Boston Common, fans scrawled "Lennon Lives" on several Cambridge buildings and Harvard Square merchants set up makeshift shrines in their front windows to eulogize Lennon, who was shot and killed in front of his New York City apartment building on December 8.

When John Warnock Hinckley Jr., a 25-year-old drifter from Evergreen, Colo., allegedly shot Reagan and three others on March 30, the debate over handgun control resumed full-force. Former Sen. John Culver '54 (D-lowa), a liberal who lost his bid for re-election last November and who was a fellow at the Institute of Politics this spring, decried the nation's current laws, saying. "This is horrendous--no one is safe." Speaking at a fund-drive event in Sanders Theater, President Bok expressed his regret for the incident and related a phrase heard many times that day, calling it the saddest reaction to the shooting that he had heard: "a gentleman told me he was shocked but not surprised."

Two national events elicited pride even from some of the most cynical at Harvard. Students ended their three-hour finals on January 19 by scribbling "the hostages are free!" in their blue books. And Bok sent welcome-home letters to the two Harvard alumni among the group held captive in Iran for 444 days. John W. Limbert '64 and Elizabeth Ann Swift '62. Later this spring, Swift accepted an offer to become a fellow at the University's Center for International Affairs for next year.

There was some controversy at Harvard over the space shuttle, which in mid-April successfully completed its first test flight. Scientists such as Eric J. Chaisson, associate professor of Astronomy, emphasized the shuttle's potential as part of the nation's military planning, but when Columbia glided onto a southern California runway after a perfect 54 1/2-hour mission, most could not help but feel a surge of awe--and relief--at the accomplishment.