Timeline: 1956 In Review

9/19: 1,125 freshmen register at the College, 296 register for Radcliffe. Harvard decides to institute a $10 application fee to decrease the number of applications.



9/26: Richard L. Dodds ’55 resigns as student council president. Albert B. Levin ’56 unanimously elected.



9/29: Prescott Street apartments will house 200 college students. Overseers report calls College expansion “unavoidable,” need for larger faculty, three more houses.



10/2: Holly Carleton is chosen as Miss Radcliffe ’59. WHRB, the undergraduate radio station, wins approval of football broadcasts a day later.



10/5: School of education faces budget cuts of $63,000 when $300,000 bequest expires in June.



10/9: Local alumni begin fundraising $80,000 to restore Memorial Hall tower. The Divinity School must get $675,000 before the end of the year to retain $250,000 given by the late Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont.



10/10: The student council endorses a petition, signed by more than 900 students, in favor of allowing women guests in Houses at 1 p.m. on weekdays, three hours earlier than the previous rule.



10/20: It is discovered that 10 students graduated from the College last year after submitting theses that were prepared by a professional thesis-writing service. The service, called “editorial consultants,” will research, outline, draft, and type up a 60 page thesis on any subject for as little as $20.



10/24: A head-on auto collision kills a 38 year-old woman and injures two students. A rise in tuition is predicted a day later: $1000 high. Endowment hits new high: $442M.



10/31: The business school broadens the scope of the student aid fund. Four days later, Aldrich acquits Kamin on two accounts, two remain.



11/5: The chem department hopes to exapand the Mallinckrodt lab in the spring. A week later, it was announced that Lamont will stay open until midnight.



11/16: The divinity school projects an enrollment high of 300. A student petition for extended parietals hours to entertain women in the Houses met flat rejection by the Faculty Administrative Board the day before.



1/19: Yale beats Harvard football, 21-7. A week later, the Medical School receives grant of million dollars in unrestricted finds from the Commonwealth Fund.



12/1: Dunster wins the first inter-house debate as judges split on verdict. Sanitary engineers begin with an investigation today to determine the cause of a minor epidemic of intestinal disturbance.



12/2: The union closes to freshman following a fire causing $15,000 in damages. The business school raises tuition by $200 in 1956, the money is for an increase in faculty salaries.



12/8: Students and staff of Harvard’s AFROTC bitterly criticized the Air Force yesterday for its decision to disband the unit in 1957.



12/13: $4.5M from the Ford Foundation will be used to raise faculty salaries. Four days later, a DuPont donation of $30,000 to the University is made for graduate education fellowships and chemistry research.



12/19: The divinity school initiates second phase of a fundraising drive with $4M, receives $500,000 in a Sealantic grant. A day later, Harvard’s formula for determining financial need goes into nation-wide operation.



2/1: Mark DeWolfe Howe ’28, professor of Law and Samuel H. Beer, professor of Government, denounce at a State House legislative hearing three pending bills aimed at preventing communists from teaching at universities in this state, and punishing institutions that employ them.

2/2: Tenley Albright ’57 wins the Olympic Women’s figure skating championship at Cortina, Italy.



2/4: Fines collected by the University police for car registration and parking infractions now total $2,500. The Department of History and Literature eliminates theses for non-honors students and reduces honors theses to 10,000 words.



2/7: The Medical school is given a $42,226 grant to increase faculty pay. A week later, Radcliffe raises room rent for 1957 by $10-$15.



2/15: The largest proton accelerator in the world is under construction at Brookhaven, Long Island. The machine will be operated by Harvard and eight other institutions. Two days later, Harvard and MIT commit to building a $4 million lab, sharing operations of the giant ‘704’ computer.



2/20: Drawings of the radcliffe graduate refectory were finalized. The refectory is the second building of the quadrangle to be constructed and will contain dining facilities for the graduate school as well as housing for approximately 40 students.



2/23: A sudden fire in Thayer North causes $100 worth in damages before it was discovered. Eliot House senior Richard Friedberg ’56 speaks at the Institute for Advanced Study on his solution to a math problem which has been unsolved for over a decade.



2/25: Stillman Infirmary accepts its second woman patient ever, even though it is almost ‘impossible’ to treat women there. Three days later, eight Adams House residents were driven from their rooms when a fire broke out between the third and fourth floors of ‘B’ entry.

3/5: The Freshman Smoker’s future is questioned after one freshman was knocked unconscious and the affair lost $250, of which $100 was lent by the Student Council.



3/7: The Faculty rejects a bio-chem proposal for dropping the non-honors track. Dan H. Hinz ’56 wins a green Ford thunderbird sports car and a 21 in color TV set after taking one of the ten top prizes in the Viceroy filter-tip naming contest.



3/15: University takes its first stance on desegregation: the Divinity School permits its Chapel to be used for prayer for black ministers arrested on charges of encouraging a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.



3/17: The biggest blizzard in march since 1888 hits Cambridge. A second blizzard three days later causes cancellation of four exams, and liquor sales to go up.



3/27: George P. Berry, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, backs Health Secretary Marion Folsom’s stand opposing increased federal aid for medical research at this time. The Faculty rejects the freshman petition for extended parietal hours on Saturday nights.



4/9: Committee on the Visual Arts recommends a $6.5m expansion in program to include a Harvard theatre and a new design center. Two days later, the Corporation votes to increase all salaries for members of the Faculty and administration by five percent.



4/13: Administrative organization of the Harvard College library undergoes a complete overhauling. A Lowell House student tried to find out how a fridge worked, ruptured the machine’s gas pipe and had to be rescued by the fire department.



4/23: Harvard, MIT get largest electron accelerator in the world. Costing $6.5 million, the project will be completed by 1960.



5/7: Robert B. Woodward, Loeb professor of chemistry, synthesized reserpine, an important drug in the treatment of mental disorders. One day later, the student council proposes a new student activity center.



6/1: Dean of Freshmen bans the freshman smoker. 73 percent of freshman have poor teeth, according to James M. Duning, director of the hygiene departments’ dental health service.