By Madeline R. LearUPDATED: December 30, 2014, at 2:36 p.m.
Colleges and universities nationwide grappled with how best to address campus sexual assault this year as the White House put a spotlight on the issue and the federal government investigated dozens of schools’ Title IX compliance. Harvard was no exception.
Controversy over Harvard’s handling of sexual assault first came to a head in late March, when a first-person, anonymous op-ed published by The Crimson’s editorial board criticized the College’s sexual assault policy and prompted outcry among student leaders. Just days later, news broke that two undergraduates had filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that the College’s sexual assault policies violated Title IX; the office later launched an investigation into the issue that remains ongoing.
Amidst the controversy, Harvard administrators took several steps to address the issue. In early April, University President Drew G. Faust convened a task force to focus on prevention; that group soon recommended increasing funding for the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, among other points. And notably, administrators unveiled in July a new University-wide policy that rehauled Harvard’s approach to handling cases of alleged sexual harassment. The procedures created a new office responsible for investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against students from all of Harvard’s schools—an office that, months after its creation, remained understaffed.
The new policy prompted criticism from both student activists who decried its lack of an explicit affirmative consent clause and professors at the Law School who argued that it is biased against the accused.
In late December, OCR determined that Harvard Law School's "current and prior" sexual harassment policies violated Title IX following a years-long probe.
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By Y. Kit WuBy Shunella Grace LumasJust three semesters after an investigation into Harvard’s largest cheating scandal in recent memory roiled the College, the school's Academic Integrity Committee presented students in late January with a draft of Harvard College’s first-ever honor code. The draft of the proposed policy called for a dramatic overhaul of the College’s approach to handling academic dishonesty; specifically, it asked students to sign a statement affirming their commitment to the honor code on major assignments and exams and proposed the creation of a student-faculty judiciary body, separate from the existing Administrative Board, to hear cheating cases. The so-called honor board’s membership would be composed of half students and half faculty and administrators.
At feedback sessions, students raised concerns about the way the College would select students to serve on the proposed judiciary body, while many of faculty members’ questions centered around how frequently students would have to sign the affirmation statement. Still, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in May to approve an honor code, albeit with the nature and frequency of the affirmation statement to be debated and determined at a later date.
With an eye toward implementing the approved policy in the fall of 2015, the Academic Integrity Committee and the College Dean’s Office launched the selection process for student members of the honor board—now called the Honor Council—in November, soliciting nominations for sophomores and juniors to serve on the judiciary body. College administrators plan to name chosen students by February and also launch the nomination process for potential council members from the Class of 2018 in the spring.
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By George J LokBy Madeline R. LearHarvard found itself in the national news in May for an unusual reason: a controversial planned reenactment of a satanic “black mass” organized by the the Extension School’s Cultural Studies Club.
The ceremony has historically served as a parody of a traditional Catholic Mass, and thus its scheduling at the Cambridge Queen’s Head pub on May 12 drew the ire of numerous campus constituencies. The planned reenactment drew sharp criticism from Harvard’s chaplains, Extension School Dean of Students and Alumni Affairs Robert H. Neugeboren '83, the Archdiocese of Boston, many University students and alumni, and University President Drew G. Faust, who characterized the event as “abhorrent” and “a fundamental affront to the values of inclusion,” but nonetheless said she would not block it, citing Harvard’s “commitment to free expression.”
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Despite Faust’s green light, the Cultural Studies club decided to move the event from the Queen’s Head, which by mid-afternoon on May 12 was encircled by news trucks, to the Middle East nightclub in Central Square. The manager of the Middle East, though, said shortly thereafter that the club would not hold the mass, and later that night a spokesperson for the Satanic Temple, which was to help put on the mass, said the event had been called off.
The mass, however, would go on in the end. Around 10 p.m., unbeknownst to restaurant owner Paul Lee, the second floor lounge of the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant became the destination for a paired down “black mass” reenactment. Roughly 50 darkly clothed individuals, some wearing hoods and horns, performed the ceremony.
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By Robert F WorleyIt was a year of significant turnover in Harvard’s top ranks. In June, amidst questions about the investment performance of the University’s now-$36.4 billion endowment, Harvard Management Company President and CEO Jane L. Mendillo announced that she would leave by her post the end of 2014, citing a desire to pursue other professional and personal interests and explaining that she was proud of HMC’s post-financial crisis recovery. In September, the University announced that Stephen Blyth, managing director and head of public markets at HMC and a professor of the practice of statistics at Harvard, would replace Mendillo.
In July, Harvard College’s leadership also changed over as Cabot House Co-Master Rakesh Khurana moved into University Hall after he was named Interim Dean Donald H. Pfister’s replacement in January. In his first term as dean, Khurana prioritized student engagement and spoke at length about the College’s mission, remaining largely distant from the proceedings of the University’s capital campaign.
October brought changing leaves and changing leadership in a key position: the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences deanship. Late that month, Dean Cherry A. Murray announced that she would step down at the year’s end. Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith later tapped Computer Science professor Harry R. Lewis ’68, a former dean of the College and an occasional critic of University leadership and policy, as interim SEAS dean.
As Harvard heads into the new year, a search committee has convened to find Murray’s permanent replacement. A number of other prominent administrators will also soon vacate their posts: Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications Christine M. Heenan will depart in February, and Harvard Kennedy School Dean David T. Ellwood ’75 will leave at the end of the academic year after 10 years at the helm of the school.
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By Zorigoo TugsbayarSince launching the public phase of its capital campaign early last fall with $2.8 billion already raised, Harvard has raked in gifts and commitments this year, reaching the $4.8 billion mark by the end of September. The campaign has a goal of $6.5 billion, which would be a record among institutions of higher education, and is expected to last until 2018.
The banner year, which is among the most prolific in the history of higher education, was fueled by big-ticket gifts. In February, Harvard announced that Kenneth C. Griffin ’89, a Chicago-based hedge fund manager, had given $150 million, $125 million of which was earmarked for financial aid at the College. Griffin was lionized by University officials in interviews and press releases, but the biggest gift in Harvard’s history had yet to come. In conversations that evolved over a year, Chinese billionaire Gerald L. Chan, through his family foundation, eventually pledged $350 million to rename the School of Public Health in honor of his late father, T.H. Chan, in September 2014. The gift marked the first time Harvard had renamed one of its schools in exchange for philanthropy.
And Harvard was not done yet. Two weeks later, the University announced that it had renamed the Faculty of Arts and Sciences deanship, currently held by Michael D. Smith, in recognition of support from Paul B. Edgerley and Sandra M. Edgerley ’84.
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By Connie YanNon-union Harvard employees learned in early September that the University would significantly restructure their health benefit plans in a cost-saving measure. Officials justified the changes by citing an increase in health care costs over the past decade. In October, however, The Crimson reported that some numbers used in University literature to explain the changes misrepresented the nature of the actual growth in health costs.
Tensions about the changes soon came to a head, with vocal members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences leading the charge expressing outrage at the changes, calling them “regressive” and unnecessary. At the forefront of the opposition was History professor Mary D. Lewis, who ultimately proposed, at the November meeting of the Faculty, that University President Drew G. Faust and members of the Harvard Corporation reverse the revised policy on account of the disproportionate burden critics say it places on junior faculty members and staff.
The November meeting was one of the most well attended in recent memory, with numerous professors queuing up to oppose the changes. At the end of the meeting, which was extended and ran nearly two hours, faculty members unanimously voted in favor of Lewis’s motion.
The following week, Faust in a letter to the Faculty wrote that although the new policy would stand, she would implement several measures to address the concerns of the Faculty, including a rebate program that will reimburse policyholders whose health care expenses exceeded 3 percent of their salaries. The policy opened for enrollment the day after the Faculty’s vote.
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By Shunella Grace LumasOn a Friday afternoon in early October, hundreds of Harvard affiliates received emails containing a racially charged death threat that spurred a months-long investigation by police and reignited criticism of the College administration’s handling of issues related to race and diversity.
The initial death threat was just one in a series of related messages, all written in broken English, that Harvard affiliates received from two separate email accounts. One message, delivered the following day from a “hotmail.de” account that was used to send the original threat, appeared to apologize for the first message; another Google Mail address linked to the death threat had repeatedly emailed College students since as early as the previous April. The messages disproportionately targeted women of Asian descent.
The Harvard University Police Department determined that the threatening messages had originated overseas, and by early December, it had handed the investigation over to German authorities. Still, on Christmas morning—months after affiliates received the initial threat—more than 100 undergraduates received another email from the "hotmail.de" address that had been used to send the October threat.
College students criticized the administration’s response to the initial threats, arguing that it was untimely. That criticism prompted Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana to promise that he would improve his communication with students in the future. The conversations about Harvard’s institutional support for minority students that followed the threat echoed discussions that black and Latino students had started the previous semester. Following a March town hall that criticized the University for a lack of institutional support for Latino students and the “I, Too, Am Harvard” social media campaign and theater production that highlighted black students’ experiences at Harvard, students joined to advance discussion about race on campus and Harvard’s support for students of color.
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By Zorigoo TugsbayarIn November, The Crimson broke the news that the University planned to shutter Stillman Infirmary, the 24-hour inpatient facility at Harvard University Health Services, by the end of the academic year as part of a broader health services restructuring plan. UHS Director Paul J. Barreira said the decision was made not to reduce costs, but rather to expand same-day appointments, as well as counseling and mental health services. The news nonetheless ignited widespread concern and confusion among undergraduates.
Although Barreira afterwards detailed the changes and their rationale in an email to the student body, many remained anxious that the closure would negatively impact student health, particularly alcohol-related incidents and mental health. Others criticized the perceived lack of student input into the decision.
Following the outcry, Barreira announced at a town hall meeting that the University would preserve on-campus, 24-hour urgent-care services, but said that Stillman would still close at the end of the academic year. Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde has since convened a group of students and House administrators to discuss Stillman’s upcoming closure in January and February, ensuring that these debates on student health will persist into the new year.
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By Sarah P ReidBy Sarah P ReidAt the November meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as faculty and administrators bickered about changes to employee health benefit plans, Vice Provost for Advances in Learning Peter K. Bol made an admission that surprised many. In response to a question from Computer Science professor Harry R. Lewis ’68, Bol acknowledged that he had authorized the use of cameras to photograph classes last spring as part of a study on class attendance without the permission of the photographed students and faculty.
At that meeting, Bol did not specify the number of courses photographed in the study, though The Crimson later reported that students in 29 courses were photographed. Media outlets had previously reported that 10 courses were photographed in the study because only data from 10 courses were included in a presentation made by a Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching researcher Samuel T. Moulton ’01 in mid-September. By then, only instructors from those courses had consented to the release of data collected from their classes. According to one instructor, when relevant instructors were informed of the study via email in early September, the method of data collection was not disclosed.
In response to the news of the controversial study, University President Drew G. Faust said she took the matter “very seriously” and would refer it to an oversight committee for review. The matter was also met with criticism from the Undergraduate Council, which voted to formally request that administrators release more information about the study. More than a week after the November Faculty meeting, Bol emailed students from all 29 courses to inform them that they had been enrolled in a photographed course.
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By Shunella Grace LumasThe decisions of two separate grand juries not to indict two white police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., this year prompted outcry and protests across the nation. Harvard students took to Boston streets in late November in protest of the Ferguson decision; an undergraduate was among dozens of protesters arrested at the rally.
Then, in early December, Harvard affiliates marched with Cambridge residents down Massachusetts Ave. and blockaded the street mid-afternoon in protest of the Ferguson non-indictment. Later that week, administrators including Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana joined students at a protest in front of University Hall in Harvard Yard. Still others marched from Davis Square to MIT in protest of the Ferguson decision and another grand jury’s choice not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner in New York.
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One protest, an attempted moment of silence at Primal Scream—the biannual naked run around the Yard that marks the beginning of final exam period—did not go as planned; while administrators present tried to quiet the Primal Scream runners and mediate between them and the protesters, the episode prompted both confusion and controversy after some Primal Scream participants did not partake in the moment of silence and ran in the opposite direction of the protesters.
The next day, hundreds of Harvard affiliates joined for their largest protest against the non-indictments, marching through Harvard and Central squares, blocking traffic along the way and staging four separate “die-ins.”
For a visual breakdown of the year's top stories, watch the video below:
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