From Ma at Leverett to TV at Lowell, Houses Host Guests to Celebrate 350th

If a 5000-person gala ball is not your idea of celebrating Harvard's 350th birthday, the undergraduate houses will be throwing more intimate parties next week.

The affairs will center on commemorative dinners held by each house for their residents. Most of the dinners will honor distinguished guests, and many houses will sponsor symposia open to all undergraduates.

However, while two river houses will be playing host to world-renowned musicians, Lowell House residents can watch a TV special called "A Video Portrait of Harvard," which aired on CBS last month and features Master William H. Bossert '59.

After a banquet at Adams House that will have space for only 300 of the house's 370 students, a coterie of Adams alumni and associates will give a musical recital, said house officials.

New York District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman '62 will return to Cabot House Tuesday to give the keynote speech at a dinner given in her honor.

Currier House's party will be "a little more upbeat" than just a 350th celebration because new masters Gregory and Zuzana Nagy will throw a Sweet Sixteen party to celebrate the house's 16th birthday, said Patricia Pepper, assistant to the masters.

Poets Julie Agoos '79 and Michael Blumenthal, possibly joined by Professor of English and American Literature Helen Vendler, will speak after a Currier buffet dinner next Thursday. The reading and discussion will be open to all undergraduates, said Pepper.

Following a slide lecture on Monday by architect Douglas Shand Tucci '72, Dudley House will host a dinner for its members and affiliates. The following night, Dudley will be the scene of a country dance, and Wednesday night lutinist Hopkinson Smith '70 will give a recital open to all undergraduates.

On Tuesday Vice President and General Counsel Daniel Steiner '54 will return to Eliot House--where he served as house committee chairman during his undergraduate years--for a dinner in his honor.

Eliot House officials refused to specify what Leonard Bernstein '39's visit will entail. "That is not something we wish to be publicized," said an Eliot official who refused to give her name.

To honor the visit of neighbor Master of Eliot House Alan E. Heimert '49, Kirkland will serve 1636-era fare at its dinner Wednesday evening. The menu will feature apple fritters, roast turkey and boiled mutton.

World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma '76 will give a house-wide musical performance as part of Leverett House's festivities next week.

Geyser University Professor Henry Rosovsky, a member of the seven-man Harvard Corporation, will speak at Mather House next week following a banquet in his honor.

North House residents will probably have to sign up to eat at a Thursday dinner featuring Ellen Hume '68, White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and several Neiman fellows. Before the dinner there will be an open symposium with the guests.

Because the Quincy House dining hall is too small to accommodate in residents, the house will host two special dinners, said Co-Master Michael Shinagel.

Alumni and students affiliated with Quincy will lead a symposium at a special dinner on Wednesday. Derek Brewer, master of Cambridge University's Emmanuel College, will compare English university education with Harvard's at a dinner in his honor on Thursday, Shinagel said.

All Winthrop House residents have been invited to a dinner in honor of Warburg Professor of Economics John Kenneth Galbraith.