Day By Day: 1999-2000 In Review

September

11Holiday stress takes on new meaning for some new Harvard students, as first-year move-in weekend coincides with the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays. Harvard officials make modifications to move-in schedules, but Hillel leaders say the confluence still makes for a difficult weekend.

13 Harvard and the City of Boston reach a resolution in a two-year battle over what the University owes the city in lieu of taxes. The University agrees to pay $40 million over 20 years.

15 Hoping to improve student involvement in House life, the College announces it will halve the maximum size of blocking groups from 16 to eight starting with the Class of 2003.

22 A semester-long student survey reveals widespread dissatisfaction with Undergraduate Health Services. Overall levels of satisfaction remain low, with just 58 percent of students rating their care as good or better.

22 Harvard announces that for the first time in six years it has fallen short of projected investment returns from its multibillion-dollar endowment. Overall, Harvard's endowment investments earn 12.2 percent in the last year, seven percentage points less than the goal set by Harvard's money managers.

22 Harvard says it will sell a low-income housing development in Roxbury to the development's tenants' association for $66 million.

26 The Reverend Billy Graham, 80 years old and suffering from Parkinson's disease, delivers an evangelical oration tailored for undergraduates at Memorial Church's morning service. Graham is greeted by a standing-room-only crowd of more than 1,500--including students who spent the night on the church's front steps to get a seat.

29 In order to meet increasing demands for research facilities, Harvard Medical School unveils plans to construct a $250 to $300 million research complex in the Longwood Medical Area. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2000 or early 2001.

October

1 Radcliffe College and Harvard University officially merge at one minute after midnight. As most of the campus goes to bed, Radcliffe College quietly ends its 120-year history as an independent women's college and becomes the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

6 President Neil L. Rudenstine announces at the Harvard Club of New York that the University's capital campaign has raised $2.325 billion--three months before its scheduled end and $225 million in excess of the goal the University set for itself more than five years earlier.

6 Trailed at all times by a gaggle of media, a spirited Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura makes a series of campus appearances. Ventura's visit to Harvard culminates in an appearance on the CNBC program "Hardball," which broadcasts live from the Kennedy School of Government.

12 The University signs an agreement with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers to provide greater compensation for nominally part-time or "casual" employees who worked full-time hours. Over 400 employees are affected.

17 A late-night prank that results in a declaration of war by some Adams House residents on their Pforzheimer House rivals ends in the final battle between the two Houses, a series of intramural competitions. After prevailing in the final battle, Pfoho residents win a special dispensation to eat in Adams for the rest of the year--and both Houses applaud a new spirit of House community.

22 Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) capture the suspected "Yard burglar," in a dramatic daytime arrest. HUPD officers arrest Andre Stuckey, 20, who say is responsible for a dozen break-ins, predominately in Matthews Hall. Stuckey later pled guilty to crimes stemming from the incidents.

26 Six Harvard Medical School researchers receive letters containing razor blades from an animal rights activist group, condemning their non-human, primate-based research. Police suspect a group known as "Justice Department."

30 Harvard plays host to an international education summit, setting up a two-day colloquium between seven presidents from China's leading universities and five from U.S. universities.

November

2 In a political upset that may reflect an increasing conservative bent to predominantly liberal Cambridge, three-term city council member Katherine Triantafillou loses her position after receiving the 10th-highest number of votes in a race for nine seats.

10 The Crimson reports that for the past two months, Edward Francis Meinert, Jr., an Extension School student, posed as a transfer student in the College Class of 2002. Meinert had conned his friends and colleagues, hiding the fact that he was not an undergraduate and that he was also facing an impending Federal prison sentence for fraud that he incurred as a student at George Washington University.

10 Harvard commits to fund affordable housing with $20 million in loans and a $1 million grant that could eventually create up to $400 million for the Boston area.

16 About 200 students brave chilly winds and near-freezing temperatures in the Yard and at the Holyoke Center to rally for a $10 per hour 'living wage' for Harvard employees.

20 With Harvard ahead 21-17 late in The Game's forth quarter, Yale's quarterback Joe Walland takes over with 2:53 left and marches his team downfield. A controversial touchdown pass with 29 seconds left in The Game ultimately drops Harvard and gives Yale a share of the Ivy League championship. Harvard ends the season at 5-5, 3-4 in the Ivy League.

23 Harvard Law School Dean Robert C. Clark says he is reviewing prominent law school professor Arthur R. Miller's taped lectures for web-based Concord University School of Law in June, afraid that Miller might be running afoul of University rules for faculty.

24 B.J. Averell '02 is discovered stowed away in the restroom of a Delta Express jet while attempting to get to home in time for Thanksgiving after learning his seat had been given away by the airline. He is arrested by Logan Airport security officials.

December

8 Harvard University announces it is suing a Boston man for violating the new federal "cyber-piracy" law. Harvard alleges that Michael Rhys and Michael Douglas, thought to be aliases for the same person, registered 65 Internet names using the words "Harvard" and "Radcliffe," intending to sell them to Harvard for a profit.

10 Members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement lead about 40 students on an "anti-sweatshop tour" of the Square. The protestors target the Coop, the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch.

13 After his Mather House room had been targeted repeatedly in acts of homophobic vandalism during the fall, K. Kyriell Muhammad announces he will resign as resident tutor at the end of the term.

15 Netting more than twice as many votes as any other candidate, Fentrice D. Driskell '01 wins the Undergraduate Council's top spot and her running mate John A. Burton '01 grabs the council's vice presidency. An election referendum also slashes the council to nearly half its current size and defeats efforts to increase student fees that go to the council.

15 Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 takes a temporary leave to undergo surgery for what appears to be an early stage of prostate cancer. Fineberg returns to his normal duties gradually over the winter.

16 College administrators announce that starting in fall 2000, students will receive late-night snacks in House dining halls as an addition to the meal plan. The new meal will be called the "Brain Break."

January

4 A University task force recommends that the troubled Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) be dissolved and its programs distributed among Harvard schools after a six-month review.

5 Nearly 24 years after the shooting death of Edward Paulsen, then a 28-year old Harvard graduate student studying economics, police in Canada

arrest a man long sought as a suspect in the murder. The Sept. 9, 1976 murder was the result of a botched drug deal.

12 The owners of the Bow and Arrow Pub and the Mass. Ave. Dunkin' Donuts learn they will join The Tasty in a dubious Harvard Square clique: Good Will Hunting made them famous, development could make them disappear. The stores are being forced out of their building by the Harvard Cooperative Society.

19 Amidst a flurry of campaign violation complaints against newly elected Undergraduate Council Vice President Burton, leaders of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters' Alliance tell The Crimson that they never gave Burton permission to use buttons he had taken from the group's office for his campaign. Burton opponents and some former supporters call for his resignation.

23 An electrical fire and explosion in a manhole near the Harvard-owned Peabody Terrace apartments emits dangerous gases that force residents to evacuate their homes for most of the day. Gases from a fire in an underground transmitter explode, sending a fireball more than 70 feet in the air. No one is injured in the blast.

February

1 The Hasty Pudding Theatricals announce that Billy Crystal and Jamie Lee Curtis will be Man and Woman of the Year.

3 Ten members of the Undergraduate Council formally submit two articles of impeachment against Burton, whose supporters counter that the move is "petty" and politically motivated.

4 Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 proposes rewording College rules to allow students to run businesses from their dorm rooms.

6 The Harvard Corporation appoints two new members--one of whom is the first black person ever to serve on the University's highest governing body.

13 The Undergraduate Council rejects two articles of impeachment and votes not to remove Burton from office. Though the vote falls far short of the two-thirds required to remove Burton from office, a slim majority--41 council members, with 38 opposing--support the second article of impeachment.

15 After jostling for more than a month without consensus, the Cambridge City Council finally elects Anthony D. Galluccio as mayor.

17 Harvard University Police Department officers quickly evict three students protesting Harvard sweatshop policy inside Mass Hall. The group planned to spend four hours handing out leaflets in Mass Hall, but is ejected within minutes. Students and College and University officials gather to discuss the demonstration.

22 In a multi-city crime spree lasting barely an hour, four teenagers hold up two Harvard students and two Cantabrigians at gunpoint, including an undergraduate walking beside Lowell House.

23 The state of Massachusetts sues the University to ensure that the financially troubled Harvard Pilgrim Health Care can keep its name regardless of whether Harvard grants permission.

28 Continuing a major shift in Harvard policy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) officials confirm that they are assembling a program to teach undergraduates about high-tech entrepreneurship and help students start their own businesses while still in school.

28 The Crimson reports that Harvard will not participate in a series of confidential high-level discussions between Yale, Princeton and Stanford universities to create a distance learning colloquium directed at alumni.

March

2 Harvard says it will more than double the funds available for faculty and staff childcare. It will also increase the number of "emergency care hours" offered to faculty and staff members for care of children or elderly family members.

2 More than 30 student activists evade Harvard University Police Department officers and stage three consecutive teach-ins to argue for a living wage, disrupting administrators in Mass. Hall, the Harvard Office of Labor Relations and the University Development Office.

12 The Undergraduate Council passes a bill condemning police brutality and supporting student efforts to call attention the Amadou Diallo verdict. Representatives debate whether the council should be discussing national issues like police brutality in the first place.

14 Frequent binge drinking is on the rise at colleges across the country, according to a study released by the Harvard School of Public Health.

21 The Kennedy School of Government says it will open a new center in the fall of 2000 devoted to the study of public leadership. The center, which Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. cites as one of the major accomplishments of his tenure, will be led by Public Service Professor David R. Gergen, a former White House adviser, and by Ronald A. Heifetz, a lecturer in public policy.

23 Two conservative, religious groups sue Cambridge over an ordinance that extends rights and benefits usually reserved for married couples to domestic partners of gay and lesbian city employees, claiming that the 1992 ordinance is both inconsistent with state law and unconstitutional.

April

2 Drew Gilpin Faust of the University of Pennsylvania is named the first permanent dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, starting January 1, 2001. Faust is Annenberg professor of history at Penn and has served as director of the Women's Studies there program since 1996.

3 The Cambridge City Council passes an order supporting a living wage of at least $10 an hour for all Harvard employees, threatening that town-gown relations will be strained unless the University acts soon. The council had mandated that all city employees and employees of firms contracting with the city must be paid at least $10 an hour in May 1999.

5 FAS completes negotiations with the Institute of 1770 to take ownership of the Hasty Pudding building. FAS will foot the bill for massive renovations to the dilapidated building--by some accounts, likely a $10 million undertaking.

10 The Institute of Politics confirms that former Sen. David H. Pryor (D-Ark.) will take over as director Aug. 1, replacing former Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), who will leave the post in June.

11 In a report released by the FAS Committee on Resources, FAS says it wants more say in how the University spends its money and calls for the creation of a faculty committee to advise Rudenstine on finances. "Major decisions involving the commitment of substantial resources...are sometimes first discovered by Faculty from the local press," the report says.

18 After fielding months of questions regarding the use of Harvard's name in Internet domains, the provost's office issues a new set of name-use guidelines primarily directed at University users. The policy clarifies and expands upon a 1997 policy on the use of Harvard names and insignia. That policy does not mention the Internet.

21 Romance Languages and Literature Professor Lino Pertile and his wife Anna Bensted, the managing editor for Boston's National Public Radio affiliate, are named co-Masters of Eliot House. Tom C. Conley, also a professor of Romance languages and literature and his wife Verena A. Conley, a visiting professor in literature, are at the same time appointed Masters of Kirkland House.

28 During pre-frosh weekend, about 30 members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement occupy Byerly Hall for six hours to promote their campaign for a living wage at Harvard. Facing down potential arrest, members refuse to heed requests from the Harvard University Police Department that they leave the building.

May

3 After 15 months of forceful student pressure, Rudenstine announces that the University plans to extend health care and job training benefits to virtually all Harvard employees, but will stop short of enacting a 'living wage.' These recommendations are included in a report released by the Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies.

6 Actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Class of 1992, blast Harvard for not paying all its workers a 'living wage' and urge the University to fulfill its obligations to the community. More than 400 people--ranging from labor activists to star-struck fans--jam the green in front of Littauer Center to catch a glimpse of the Academy Award winners.

9 A defiant Kenneth W. Starr defends his five-year tenure as independent counsel, sharply and sometimes sarcastically reproving student questioners who criticize his investigation, in a Kennedy School speech.

9 The undergraduate admission office announces that about 80 percent of students admitted to the Class of 2004 will attend Harvard, giving the College its highest yield since the early 1970s. Officials credit the College's generous financial aid program and successful pre-frosh weekend as factors in Harvard's impressive yield, which is consistently the highest of the nation's selective colleges.

15 Harvard decides to rethink its most recent proposal for the Knafel Center for Government and International Study after a Cambridge city board finds fault with much of the University's plan.

17 Officials of a popular Core course make final exam questions available to students, just three days before the test, after a laptop containing a copy of the exam is stolen. The laptop computer belonging to Karim A. Al-Zand, the head teaching fellow for Literature and Arts B-80: "The Swing Era," was stolen from Al-Zand's office.

22 Rudenstine announces that he will leave Harvard at the end of June 2001. While some say his announcement came suddenly, Rudenstine emphasizes the timeliness of the decision. His resignation comes at the conclusion of a six-year capital campaign that has defined his tenure.