Harvard Today: September 23, 2014

Happy Tuesday, Harvard! We hope your week is off to a good start. With the new Pasta Flyer food truck in the plaza (all gluten-free!), a newly named Deanship, this week's salmon burger grill special, yesterday’s autumnal equinox, and add/drop without a fee deadline (oops, thought you knew!), it almost seems like we’re getting a little bit of a fresh start on the semester. Whether that means finally getting out of the class you haven’t attended since shopping week, getting to debut that brand-new (or, let’s be real, last season) fall wardrobe, debating how to pronounce “Edgerley” with your blockmates over dinner, or finally getting all the gluten-free pasta and salmon burgers you never knew you needed, we hope it gave you the chance to restart a bit. The timing couldn’t be better, with October (and an onslaught of midterms and paper deadlines) right around the corner. Enjoy it!

By Daniel N. Yue

IN THE ATMOSPHERE
Today will be a sunny and gorgeous 71 degrees, before dropping to around 52 at night. If this is what this year’s Boston fall is going to be like, we’ll take it! All we need is some color foliage and freshly-picked apples, and we’ll be good to go.

IN THE D-HALLS

Lunch
BBQ Tofu Multigrain Pizza with Peppers and Onions
Margherita Pizza on Multigrain Crust
BBQ Chicken Sandwich with Bacon

Dinner
Beef Shepherd’s Pie
Chicken Francais
Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

ON FLYBY
1) HUPD Police Log 9/1 - 9/21: The Rogue Violinist: Check out the latest entry in our Securitas Series, where we comb through recent HUPD logs and publish some of the more colorful entries.

2) A Farmers' Market Feast!: Check out a few of the delicious products you could purchase from the famers' market at the Science Center Plaza today, and some recommendations for what you could do with them!

IN THE NEWS
1) Longwood Campus Evacuated Due to Nitrogen Leak: “Students, faculty, and workers were forced to evacuate three building on Harvard’s Longwood campus after officials reported a nitrogen leak in a research facility at 655 Huntington Ave. at 7:10 a.m. Monday”.

2) MCB Concentration Updates Receive Good Reviews: “Administrators behind the revamping of Molecular and Cellular Biology did not have to wait long to gauge the popularity of their new programs, courses, and requirement changes, said Alexander F. Schier, department chair of MCB”.

3) HMS Program Awarded $30 Million in Grants for Pharmacology Research: “The Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science at the Harvard Medical School was recently awarded $30 million in funding from government agencies in response to proposals from the program’s principal researchers”. Is it bad that a number like this doesn’t even shock us any more?

EVENTS
Today is the weekly Farmer’s Market! Head over to the tent in the Science Center Plaza between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. to check out what local farmers and artisans have to offer this week.

The Committee on African studies is hosting a panel discussion on the Ebola epidemic  with experts from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Nieman Foundation. Stop by the Thompson Room in the Barker Center from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. to learn more about this disease from a variety of different perspectives.

This week also marks the beginning of the IOP Study Groups. Stop by room L166 at the Kennedy School from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. to attend former Governor of Washington Christine Gregoire’s discussion on deciding to run for office, campaigning, and actually governing. Another option is Anton J. Gunn’s discussion of the process of creating and implementing the Affordable Care Act, taking place from 4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. in the Faculty Dining Room at the Kennedy School. Both should be great discussions!

PHOTO OF THE DAY

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivers the opening address at the Graduate School of Education's event "Critical Conversations and Bold Ideas". Secretary Duncan shared his experiences visiting schools in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee on the Back-to-School Bus Tour.