Welcomes & Returns

For first time in years, an H-Y loss—and a sober tailgate

In its 34-13 loss to Yale in the 2006 edition of The Game, which snapped a five-game winning streak against the Bulldogs, Harvard’s offense was about as dry as the pre-game tailgate.

Prior football clashes between traditional rivals Harvard and Yale combined the pleasures of libation with the rigors of collegiate pigskin, but thanks to a new policy implemented by University Hall, the fall blowout at the hands of the Elis was accompanied by a small-scale Prohibition.

The College banned students from bringing alcoholic beverages of any kind into or out of the tailgate, and only beer and spiked hot chocolate were on sale to students who were of age.

Perhaps as a result, the number of “incidents” dropped sharply—one student was taken to the emergency room because of alcohol poisoning, as opposed to 30 in 2004, the last time Harvard hosted The Game. And only four individuals were arrested, none of them Harvard affiliates.

As The Yale Daily News put it: “Not only did Yale win, but nearly every blue-clad student was sober enough to remember it.”



Despite high-profile scandal, economist’s courses are a hit

Andrei Shleifer ’82, the economist accused of making investments in Russia in the early 1990s while simultaneously advising its government on economic reform, returned to Harvard to teach a popular undergraduate course.

But Shleifer did not emerge from the scandal unscathed. His case led to a federal lawsuit that cost the University $26 million and was one of the biggest single factors in University President Lawrence H. Summers’ downfall last year. In October, Shleifer lost his endowed chair, but not his tenure. A Faculty-led investigation apparently concluded that he violated University policies—Shleifer had been advising the government under the auspices of the Harvard Institute for International Development.

Nevertheless. Shleifer re-emerged this spring as a sought-after instructor among undergraduates. He teamed up with Professor of Economics David I. Laibson ’88 to teach a course on psychology and economics that had to be lotteried because of over-enrollment.

He also led an undergraduate seminar on political economy. On the syllabus: “Privatizing Russia,” by Shleifer et al.



After concerted campaign, Harvard goes cage-free

It was a year of student activism. (See page 22.) Students rallied for Harvard workers, against racism—and for cage-free eggs in the dining hall. Of all those campaigns, the last may have been the most succesful.

About a dozen students collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition calling on Harvard to end its use of eggs from chickens that spend their days in 67-square-inch “batterycages.”

A day after Law School Dean Elena Kagan announced the school’s food company would be “moving toward using cage-free eggs,” Harvard University Dining Services said College dining halls would be going cage-free, as well.

The move will cost HUDS $20,000, and dining director Ted A. Mayer said it was part of Harvard’s effort to offer fresh, local products. He called the humane component of going cage free an “added benefit.”

But Martha Nussbaum, a visiting scholar at Radcliffe who has been at the forefront of the campaign, cast the decision as a good start in what should be a long-term shift toward gentler food products. The next step? According to Nussbaum, it’s time for free-range beef in the dining halls.



Big name’s arrival brings hope of a basketball revival

None of the banners hanging in the rafters above the gym floor at Lavietes Pavilion represent an Ivy League championship in men’s basketball. In the 50-year history of the conference, Harvard has never won a league title, relegating the program to subordinate status on a campus where football and hockey rule, and teams such as crew, squash, and fencing are nationally relevant.

Enter Tommy Amaker. Hired in April to replace Frank Sullivan, who manned the Crimson’s bench for 16 seasons, Amaker brings an All-American pedigree and impressive resume to Cambridge to try to put Harvard hoops on the map. In addition, Amaker becomes the only African-American currently filling one of the school’s 32 head coaching positions.

“I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity,” Amaker said at his introductory press conference. “I certainly feel like it is going to be a joyous ride.”

With the help of standouts Drew A. Housman ’09 and Evan K. Harris ’09, Amaker, who played under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and previously held head coaching positions at Seton Hall and Michigan, will set his sights on directing the Crimson to the top of the standings in a wide-open Ivy League next year.



With 2 key supporters, calendar debate is back

Harvard’s unusual academic calendar, with fall finals falling in January and the spring term lasting well into May, has been the subject of debate and dismay for at least a generation.

In 1994, the Faculty’s governing board rejected a proposal to move fall exams to December, with professors saying they were unconvinced that such a move would benefit them. Ten years later, a University-wide committee proposed changing the calendar in a similar way—but the plan was tabled pending the end of the curricular review.

This year, “calendar reform” was back on the agenda—in a much more promising way than before, largely thanks to two key backers.

Undergraduate Council President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 organized a College-wide referendum in which 84 percent of the 3,467 undergraduates who participated called for the calendar to be changed. And last month, Interim President Derek C. Bok used a letter to the community to reopen the calendar debate across Harvard, signalling that he intends to make headway on the issue before handing over the reins to Drew G. Faust on July 1.