Harvard's Name 101: A Guide to Usage

Who will make the cut?

Under the University's new "use-of-name" policy, faculty, students and staff will have to be more careful about attaching Harvard's names and insignias to their projects. In fact, hopeful Harvard name-droppers will have to get the written permission o a dean or the provost to use the name directly in the name of a project, depending on whether they want to identify the project with a school or the University as a whole.

This fall, the University's Academic Council--consisting of the central administration and the deans of the nine schools--devised a set of hypothetical situations to test-drive the new policy before final approval.

"These were purposefully designed to prompt discussion, rather than to be cases for decision making," notes Provost Harvey, V. Fineberg '67, who led the University committee that devised the new policy.

Here are some of the cases the Academic Council discussed this fall before the policy was approved:

Case 1: The Harvard History

"Professor Jones" is nearing completion of a two-volume history of Native Americans in New England. He has worked on the project for seven years. Most of his research was conducted in Widener Library, where he has a study carrel. Pilgrim Press has reviewing the manuscript and would like to publish the book under the title, The Harvard History of Native Americans in New England.

If this title can be used, Pilgrim Press will pay Professor Jones a 20 percent royalty, and Professor Jones will contribute half of his earnings to the University for the support of the History Department. If Harvard's name cannot be used in the title, Pilgrim will pay only a 10 percent royalty, and Professor Jones will not contribute any of the earnings to the University.

Answer. Professor Jones is out of luck. "If you want to be the Harvard University 'X', you can't just do it on your own initiative, as a general principle," says Fineberg. Calling a book The Harvard Guide to "X" would seem to imply "it's been endorsed by Harvard," he explains.

Not even the deans of Harvard's schools can authorize including the name "Harvard University" in the title of project or book. Only the provost can make such a decision, and Fineberg says the activities that make the cut will be few.

"It's imaginable there would be some things the President would deem appropriate as the 'Harvard X,' but that would be a decision he would come to thoughtfully," Fineberg says.

Case 2: A Nerve Center

The Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences proposes to establish a "Harvard Center for the Study of Nervous Disorder." Research would be directed primarily by four senior faculty members in the department. They have approached the dean and provost for approval.

Answer. "The one about the Center for the Study of Nervous Disorders was interesting because it raised the issue of the different parts of Harvard [having similar names]," Finberg explains. "Nervous Disorders--is that the Department of Psychology? Neurobiology? The Medical School? To call it the Harvard Center is misleading."

The verdict? "To avoid potential confusion," he concludes, the name would have to be more specific--for example, something like the "the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Center for the Study of Nervous Disorders."

Case 3: Farming out the Name

"BigPharma" is conducting a study of agoraphobia in collaboration with researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Study subjects will be drawn from the workforces of BigPharma and Harvard.

BigPharma has prepared a brochure that it would like to send employees of the company and the University to solicit study volunteers. They would like to include the Veritas shield and the HMS shield on the brochure, and they have sought permission from Harvard's principal investigator.

Answer: It's a tough call. "You wouldn't want the Harvard Shield and logo of the Harvard Medical School to be attached to a commercial product," Fineberg says.

"But even then there's the subtlety that the study was done with Harvard, so there isn't a total dissociation [from the University]."