A Year Flying By: The Moments that Made Us Pause

September 1998: Busy Harvard students began to take advantage of a new "Fly-By" lunch program in Loker Commons. Students are allowed to fill a bag with five items among a selection of sandwiches, chips, fruits, drinks and desserts--all part of the regular board program. "It's great that so many students are utilizing this option," said Ted A. Mayer, director of dining services says, as lines stretch out the door.

September 16, 1998: Harvard officials announced a $9 million, 20 percent increase in undergraduate financial aid. Harvard's decision follows similar announcements made the previous spring by Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT. Harvard's policy is designed to give students more free time in their daily lives at the College. Highlights of the increase include a $2,000 reduction in required student earnings, a change estimated to affect more than 3,100 students, and a rise--from 60 percent to 100 percent--in the amount of outside scholarship money students can use to reduce these required earnings. These changes were retroactively applied to students' first semester aid packages.

September 18, 1998: South African President and co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize Nelson Mandela spoke in a special ceremony in front of 25,000 in Tercentenary Theatre. He became the third person in Harvard's history to receive an honorary degree in a ceremony not linked to Commencement or a celebration of a University anniversary. "To join George Washington and Winston Churchill as the other recipients of such an award conferred at a specially convened convocation...holds great symbolic significance," Mandela said. "The name of an African is now added to those illustrious leaders of the Western world." In his speech, Mandela asked the world to "combat and eradicate its disparities."

September 25, 1998: The Crimson reported that Harvard's endowment lost $1.3 billion, or 10 percent of its value, in the two and a half months since its reported $13 billion high at the end of June. The drop corresponds to declines in the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average between July and mid-September. Add line about current state of endowment here.

November 23, 1998: Longtime Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III announced he would retire from his post on July 1, continuing to work part-time for the College as a senior associate dean. Named assistant dean of the College in 1963 and dean of students in 1970, Epps worked to improve race relations and presided over a large increase in the amount of student groups on campus--from 90 in 1980 to more than 240 in 1997. "It is hard even to imagine a Harvard College without the imperturbable wisdom of Archie Epps," said Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

December 2, 1998: Buffeted by a bull market and a strong economy, Harvard announced that it would add $95 million of endowment money to its operating budget for 1999. With the increase, the endowment payout moved closer to its traditional 4.5 percent, up from a historic low of 3.3 percent in 1998.

December 14, 1998: Former Harvard Republican Club President Noah Z. Seton '00 and campus progressive Kamil E. Redmond '00 were elected president and vice president of the Undergraduate Council in the campus' fifth popular election. Seton and Redmond promised to focus on student services during their year-long term.

January 25, 1999: A Crimson survey found that 24 percent of Harvard undergraduates said they have used drugs while at Harvard. Twenty-three percent said they have used marijuana. Forty-one percent of humanities concentrators said they have used drugs at the College, compared to 18 percent of natural science concentrators and 24 percent of social science concentrators.

February 16, 1999: The Crimson reported the impending resignations of three assistant professors in the English Department--Ann Pellegrini '86, Joshua "Jed" D. Esty and Jonah Siegel--continuing the University's high annual losses of junior Faculty who were not offered tenure. "We'll be losing seasoned, valuable junior Faculty and that impacts the whole life of the department," said English department chair Lawrence Buell.

February 17, 1999: The University announced it would spend $4 million to restore Memorial Hall's signature tower, destroyed by fire in 1956. Some student leaders--engaged in the perennial search for scarce office space--criticized the University's priorities. Undergraduate Council Vice President Kamil E. Redmond '00 said it was "absurd that Harvard draws on donors...to fund a project which has no immediate benefit for students."

March 9, 1999: With the largest group of students in recent memory rallying outside of University Hall, the Faculty voted to dismiss D. Drew Douglas, Class of 2000, who pled guilty to the charge of indecent assault in the fall of 1998. The students called for "justice"--a cry that united activists from the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), the Coalition Against Sexual Violence and the Living Wage Campaign. Earlier that week, the University publicly endorsed "full disclosure" of the locations of factories where Harvard apparel is made, partially assuaging PSLM's demands.

March 27, 1999: The Harvard women's hockey team defeated UNH 6-5 in overtime in the AWCHA national championship game. Co-captain A.J. Mleczko '97-'99 assisted Jennifer L. Botterill '02 with the game-winner at 8:01 of the sudden-death period. The win gave the team its first national title since 1989.

April 5, 1999: The University announced the selection of two professors of pediatric medicine, Judith S. Palfrey '67 and John G. "Sean" Palfrey '67, as the new masters of Adams House. The Palfreys will replace outgoing Adams House Co-Masters Robert J. Kiely '60 and Jana M. Kiely, who are stepping down after 24 years as heads of the House. Kiely, an outspoken critic of randomization, made Adams safe for Harvard's artists, gays and others who felt they did not fit into other House communities. "There seemed to be absolutely no choice when people from my own classes and House said, 'Can you help us? We're being discriminated against.' I felt that I had to stand up for them," Kiely said.

April 8, 1999: Longtime Cambridge political fixture and current Mayor Francis H. Duehay '55 announced he would retire in January 2000 following a 36-year career on the School Committee and then the City Council. "Term limits have finally reached me," Duehay joked. In his career, Duehay dealt with many of the major problems the city has confronted in the past four decades--including racial unrest and student protest in the 1960s and the housing tumult following the loss of rent control in a statewide referendum in 1994. Duehay said he believes there has been a substantial improvement in town-gown relations during his time in office.

April 20, 1999: Officials of Harvard University and Radcliffe College announced that Radcliffe would be absorbed under the University's umbrella as the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 120 years after it first gave women access to a Harvard education. Officials said the Institute would "sustain a commitment to the study of women, gender and society." Under the proposed agreement, Radcliffe would be placed on an equal administrative footing with the University's nine faculties. Linda S. Wilson, Radcliffe's seventh and final president, announced that she would step down from her post in June. The fate of Radcliffe's undergraduate programs has yet to be determined.

May 5, 1999: The University announced a complete restructuring of the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) as part of a plan to make the police force more efficient and to implement a model of community policing. Following an extensive audit by community policing scholar George L. Kelling, the department announced the firing of seven lieutenants, the hiring of new administrators, and the addition of more than a dozen new officers to the force.

May 9, 1999: A two-run single by first-year designated hitter Faiz R. Shakir '02 in the top of the ninth gave the Harvard men's baseball team a 5-4 win over Princeton and its third consecutive Ivy League title. The win gave Harvard a 2-1 championship series victory and a berth in the NCAA Tournament, where the team lost in the first round.

May 10, 1999: The Crimson reported the creation of a new social organization for women, the Seneca. In a year in which Radcliffe lost its college status and several final clubs closed their doors to female guests, members of the growing organization promised that the Seneca would provide women with increased social and support networks on campus. "Some people feel that Harvard has been developed by men, and that institutions [developed by men] are still around, even if Harvard refuses to recognize that," said member Julia M. Butler '01.

May 11, 1999: The Living Wage Campaign held another rally--featuring speakers Cornel R. West '74 and Cambridge Vice Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio--as part of its continuing efforts to convince Harvard to adopt a $10 minimum "Living Wage" for all University workers. Though the rally did not produce any guarantees from the administration, it did show the increased presence of the campaign, which had obtained the support of about 100 faculty members and the support of a Cambridge City Council ordinance. "This is the most significant wave of student activism since the 1960s," West said. "It shatters the stereotypes that young students are not concerned with what is right and just."

May 14, 1999: Following a year that included a record number of early action applicants and early action acceptances, as well as a near-record number of applicants overall, Harvard announced that 79.7 percent of those accepted into the Class of 2003 agreed to enroll. The yield, up 0.6 percent from 1997-1998, is the highest among all American colleges and Harvard's highest in 25 years.

May 21, 1999: Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 announced that Associate Director of Financial Aid David P. Illingworth '71 will become the Associate Dean of Harvard College in July. Illingworth's appointment filled the new College administrative structure created by Lewis to replace outgoing Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. Illingworth will assume "the overall responsibility for student extracurricular affairs and other aspects of student life," while new Associate Deans Thomas A. Dingman '67 and Georgene B. Herschbach will focus on athletics, advising and health and on finance, technology and classroom space, respectively.

May 29, 1999: Associate Professor of Government Peter Berkowitz's teaching career at Harvard ended, following President Neil L. Rudenstine's spring 1997 decision to deny him tenure and Berkowitz's subsequent public appeal and formal tenure complaint. In the complaint, Berkowitz accused the University of failing to follow its own procedures when considering him for tenure. A grievance committee charged with reviewing Berkowitz's complaint found it to be "clearly without merit."