Keeping Track ...

The Undergraduate Council on January 9 devoted most of its last first-semester session to approving grant applications totalling more than $6000 for upcoming campus activities.

Over the course of the semester, the Council allocated more than $9000 for 21 separate undergraduate projects.

The grants mark the first time a Harvard student government has given money to undergraduate organizations.

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Gov. Michael S. Dukakis tapped a third Kennedy School of Government affiliate for his senior staff as Associate Dean Ira K. Jackson '70 became state Commissioner of Revenue on January 8.

Jackson will join Director of Human Services Manuel Carballo and Director of Personnel Nicholas T. Mitropoulos, former assistant director of the Institute of Politics.

The departures add to some uncertainty about the emphasis the K-School's curriculum and faculty have been placing on state and local affairs.

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Government also beckoned to a University administrator, when President Reagan's new Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Rep. Margaret Heckler (R-Mass.), tapped George W. Siguler, Harvard's associate treasurer, to head her transition team.

Reagan nominated Heckler on January 12 to replace Richard S. Schweiker.

Siguler's duties are unclear but will be in a "managerial capacity," he said January 23. He will take an "indefinite" leave of absence.

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) January 13 outlawed personal recruiting by alumni or team "booster" associations. The rule changed designed to prevent major universities from illegally recruiting, effectively cripples Harvard's varsity athletic recruiting program, coaches and officials said.

On January 11, the NCAA approved a set of sweeping changes aimed at raising academic standards for college athletes. The changes, recommended by a committee headed by President Bok, include a minimum SAT score of 700 combined and a 2.0 high school grade-point average.

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Bomb scares to "Room 13," a peer counseling center located in the basement of Stoughton Hall, twice in the last month caused the evacuation of the building.

Both times, police evacuated the building and searched it for suspicious objects, but had no clues to the caller's identity.

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Massachusetts' new "bottle bill" took effect January 17, moving local merchants to lament the five- or 10-cent deposit imposed on purchasers of beverages in returnable containers.

"It's a nightmare," said Leo McCarthy '73, manager of the Varsity Liquor Store in Harvard Square. "It's going to take up a lot of store space and a lot of time," he added.

"It's a mess," added Arthur Drivas, general manager of the Wursthaus.

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The Kennedy School Institute of Polities (IOP) may host former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Moral Majority leader Rev. Jerry Falwell in separate appearances this spring, officials said January 12.

Giscard, elected in 1974 and unseated by Socialist Francois Mitterrand in 1981, is expected to make another run for the presidency in 1988.

Falwell said in an interview that he "would very much like to visit more Ivy League schools like Harvard."

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The results of an ongoing review of Harvard's troubled Buildings & Grounds (B & G) department began to come in as a committee recommended that the responsibility for maintenance and supervision of facilities shift to the faculties. The recommendation comes in the wake of widespread criticism of B & G's services and efficiency.

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The Faculty kicked off a comprehensive review of the Core Curriculum, which has proven more popular with students than the planners had envisioned.

The review is not expected to produce any major changes in the undergraduate liberal arts program, but was mandated when the Faculty approved the Core five years ago.

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Harvard will host first-round soccer competition for the 1984 Summer Olympics, the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee announced last week.

Subject to final approval by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), four of the world's top 16 soccer teams will play a round-robin tournament at the Stadium. It will be the first time the University has ever been the scene of an Olympic event.

Olympic officials said they chose the Stadium because it is one of the few U.S. facilities meeting 11 of FIFA's requirements. Soccer fields are about 22 yards wider than American football playing surfaces, and FIFA requires natural turf. Most American stadiums large enough for soccer have artificial surfaces or host baseball teams, thus disqualifying them for consideration as Olympic soccer sites.

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Construction of the Fogg Art Museum's controversial $8.5 million extension is proceeding on schedule, but a lawsuit filed in Great Britain has again raised questions about the reliability and competence of the new wing's architect.

Cambridge University is suing James Stirling for negligence and breach of contract in connection with an internationally acclaimed building that he designed for the University more than 15 years ago.

The British university alleges that, because of design flaws in the pyramidal structure, tiles have been falling off its sides onto passersby for more than a year.

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Harvard graduate programs have been rated among the top ten by faculty members nationwide according to part of a recently released survey.

The University's Classics, Philosophy, Spanish Language and Literature and Zoology departments were rated number one in the country based on the scholarly quality of the faculty.

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While Harvard students were searching for ways to back out more pages per hour, a conference of 80 major business and university leaders met this month in search of methods to increase other types of productivity. The Business-Higher Education Forum met at the request of President Reagan to produce a detailed paper on "innovation policy"--the search for new areas of cooperation between business, government and universities to invigorate the U. S. econony.