TOP 12 NEWS STORIES OF 2012

With the launch of a College-approved BDSM club, an international controversy surrounding Harvard Kennedy School student Bo Guagua, and the Harvard baseball team’s wildly popular parody video of the hit song Call Me Maybe, Harvard grabbed headlines in 2012.

While some of those stories captivated the attention of people outside of Cambridge for a moment, others had a sustained and meaningful impact throughout the year on Harvard’s campus. On the last day of the year, The Crimson looks back at the 12 stories from 2012 that mattered the most at Harvard.

12. Harvard Releases a New Alcohol Policy

Capping off months of efforts to tighten its grip on student alcohol consumption, the College released a new set of guidelines in March regulating drinking on campus. The new rules loosened restrictions on hard liquor at formals, while simultaneously seeking to curb dangerous drinking games. Though the new policy was intended to standardize regulation of alcohol across Harvard’s 12 Houses, it drew criticism from the start for vague language that some said left enforcement up to the discretion of individual tutors and gave no clear indication about whether students were permitted to play beer pong. The new policy was approved by the faculty in the fall, but not before professors voiced reservations about whether it could actually be enforced.

Administrators sought to involve students as they drafted and finalized the policy—but undergraduates showed little interest in participating. Following a series of sparsely attended meetings last fall while the policy was being crafted, administrators held three more meetings in April to solicit feedback on the new regulations that drew a total of only five students.

Students started paying closer attention to the new policy when the perceived crackdown spread to the streets. When students returned to campus in the fall, rumors of a police crackdown on partying temporarily dampened the late-night weekend scene. Spokespeople for the Harvard University Police Department and the Cambridge Police Department later confirmed the increased weekend police presence, saying it was intended in part to keep students safe by keeping closer tabs on their alcohol consumption. But in a panel discussion several weeks later, HUPD Chief Francis “Bud” Riley told students that police had not arrested any students that year for alcohol violations and did not plan to start enforcing underage drinking laws any differently.

11. The Rise of a Harvard Basketball Standout Sparks Linsanity

A little over a year ago, professional basketball prospects for Jeremy Lin ’10 looked pretty bleak. After the Golden State Warriors waived him last December, he was signed by the Houston Rockets days later only to be released on Christmas Eve. After agreeing to a contract with the New York Knicks shortly thereafter, Lin received minimal playing time in his first few months and even spent time in the D-League.

But that all changed on Feb. 4. With the Knicks struggling, having lost 11 of their last 13 games, coach Mike D’Antoni turned to Lin, who was in jeopardy of being cut again. And the former Harvard standout delivered, earning 25 points and seven assists to give the Knicks a much-needed victory.

His success hardly stopped there. Behind Lin, the Knicks won nine of their next 12 games, highlighted by Lin's 38-point outburst in a 92-85 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, and ultimately earned a playoff berth. In the process, Lin sparked a phenomenon later to be known as “Linsanity” that took Harvard by storm, surprising and exciting both students and former teammates and, according to long-time Knicks fan Spike Lee, “elevating the [Harvard] brand.”

A knee injury at the end of March sidelined Lin for the rest of the year, but by then he had already left a lasting mark. And despite the meteoric rise of Lin, named in Time Magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, he nevertheless maintained his characteristic humility, according to close Harvard friends.

In July, Lin left the Knicks and moved back to the Rockets—the team that had released him just months before—after signing a three-year, $25.1 million dollar contract.

10. Harvard Turns an Eye Towards Mental Health

A year after an anonymous essay published in The Crimson entitled “I Am Fine” sparked a campus-wide discussion about mental health, the sensitive topic of suicide played into the continuing conversation about students' psychological and emotional well-being.

This year, the student body received three emails from Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds with the subject line “Sad News,” each announcing the death of an undergraduate, including one that said that the student had taken his own life. Days after one of the other emails was sent, several media outlets reported that that student had also died by suicide. As the campus community coped with the painful news, student groups continued to expand on previous efforts to address the sensitive topic, while administrators affirmed their commitment to supporting mental health on campus. Working towards a solution, Hammonds created a committee to examine sources of and solutions to student stress. For many, The Crimson served as an outlet to express opinions and share experiences in the response to tragedy.

The Crimson also examined the issue with features investigating the University’s handling of mental health. The three-part series found that students may be more depressed than the University would like to admit. Following the narratives of four current undergraduates who have attempted suicide while enrolled at Harvard, the series examined the difficult paths mentally ill students navigate once they enroll at Harvard, the ways University Health Services could better serve them, and the efforts of University officials and student activists to change the disheartening numbers.

9. University Prepares for the Capital Campaign

Conversations with senior University administrators and prominent donors revealed Harvard’s plans to launch a more than $6 billion University capital campaign in late 2013. The University continued its march towards the public launch date this past year as administrators began to reveal the campaign’s funding priorities and donors pulled out their checkbooks in support.

The University’s efforts to renew the College’s 12 residential Houses, which have an estimated price tag of more than a billion dollars, attracted millions from high-profile donors, including the Hutchins Family Foundation. This past year the University revealed that Dunster House would be the next to be renewed, following the completion of the renovations of Quincy and Leverett Houses.

In October, University President Drew G. Faust declared her intention to make the construction of a campus center in the Holyoke Center a campaign priority. For years, the campaign for a student center has been a top priority for student activists.

Administrators announced that the long-delayed construction of a science center in Allston would resume in 2014, an indication of what is sure to be one of the University’s top campaign priorities. The building will eventually house academic projects for stem cell science and the engineering and physical sciences. The University also announced plans to construct a new basketball arena to meet the increased demands that have resulted from the success of Harvard’s basketball program.

Other priorities, including teaching and learning, have been less clearly defined, but are sure to feature prominently in the campaign.

8. Harvard Sees Two Stranger Rapes in Five Days

The first was on an early August morning in Harvard Yard, reported by a woman who told police she was grabbed and dragged behind Massachusetts Hall. The second was just four days later, reported by a different woman who said she was raped near Oxford and Kirkland Streets. As the first stranger rapes to be reported on Harvard’s campus in more than 12 years, they raised the question: was the close proximity of the two attacks a disturbing coincidence or a sign of a more pervasive safety problem?

As they prepared to return to campus in the aftermath of the attacks, concerned students suspected it was the latter, calling for tightened security and more frequent shuttle service. But as the fall progressed, student activism to prevent campus rape turned towards Harvard’s sexual assault policy. Harvard administrators had said after Yale changed its policies over the summer that they had no plans to change their existing procedures, but students petitioned anyway, creating a referendum question on the issue to be voted on in the November Undergraduate Council presidential election. The ballot question called for Harvard to endorse the requirement for “affirmative consent” to sex, change the language of its assault policies to include additional BGLTQ-friendly language, and make its case review process more transparent. That student referendum passed with the support of 85 percent of students who cast ballots in the election. But administrators resisted the electorate’s call for change, saying that Harvard was nowhere close to reforming its procedures. They did, however, host a panel to clarify and answer student questions about the University’s existing sexual assault policies.

7. Harvard Opens the Office of BGLTQ Student Life and Picks Its First-Ever Director To Lead It

After nearly a year of anticipation, Harvard’s new Office of BGLTQ Student Life held its grand opening in a moment that some called a watershed for institutional support of the BGLTQ community at Harvard. Following student rallies and recommendations from a working group, Hammonds in April 2011 announced plans to create a more visible office in Boylston Hall that would replace the existing student-staffed Queer Resource Center in Thayer basement and to appoint a paid full-time director to lead the new office. But the plans got off to a rocky start when Lisa “Lee” Forest, who was appointed as the new director in September 2011, turned down the position just days before she was slated to start. It was not until summer 2012 that Vanidy “Van” Bailey was tapped as Harvard’s first permanent director of BGLTQ Student Life. Bailey began the position soon after.

With the new office open and Bailey at the helm, BGLTQ students said this fall that they felt more comfortable coming out at Harvard and asking others to use gender neutral pronouns. Administrators joined in, as staffers in the Office of Student Life shared their preferred gender pronouns as an icebreaker at a recent retreat. The Crimson published a scrutiny entitled “Can You Tell?” featuring seven BGLTQ varsity athletes who say that, in fact, one cannot tell the difference between a gay athlete and a straight one.

Despite these positive signs, some have pointed to lingering challenges facing the BGLTQ community at Harvard. In June, Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Timothy P. McCarthy ’93 posted a status update on Facebook voicing concern about the recent departures of seven of his BGLTQ colleagues in what he termed a “queer exodus” from Harvard. Several of those departed colleagues told The Crimson that despite the progress made in 2012, Harvard’s climate for the BGLTQ community and its academic support for BGLTQ studies have room for improvement.

6. Harvard Reorganizes Its Library System

By all measures, 2012 was a transformative year for libraries at Harvard. The system of more than 70 libraries officially became a unified Harvard Library in August. The process—a multi-year effort—was far from seamless.

The tumult began with the coming of the new year as senior library administrators announced in January that the reorganization would result in a smaller staff without explaining how cuts would be achieved. Upset about whether this change would include layoffs, library workers protested, wrote letters, and attended meetings while the University struggled to respond. In one instance, library workers were outraged over documents circulated online that suggested that University Provost Alan M. Garber '76 and Library Executive Director Helen Shenton had made light of the situation facing library employees. Throughout the reorganization, Harvard faculty and staff expressed confusion about the process and what it aimed to achieve. In the end, six employees lost their jobs involuntarily.

In the face of protest and anger, administrators agreed communication throughout the process could have been improved. “We could have done and plan to do a better job communicating in the future,” Garber told The Crimson. Still, the University explained that a smaller staff was necessary to achieve its larger goal of making the newly unified Harvard Library a model 21st century library.

Allowing increased access to Harvard’s collections played a crucial role in the modernization effort. In April, the University announced that it would make more than 12 million records available to the public. More than 17 million of the Library’s documents will be key to the collection of the Digital Public Library of America when it opens next year.

5. Students Advocate For Responsible Investment

Following a year in which “The Protester” made headlines and occupiers shut down Harvard Yard, in 2012 student advocates at Harvard found their stride. In fall 2011, students founded Responsible Investment, a group with the stated goal of “changing the way Harvard manages its money.” In April, Harvard Management Company—the organization tasked with investing the University’s more than $30 billion endowment—announced that it would not reinvest in HEI Hotels & Resorts, a hotel chain that had been criticized for repeated allegations of failure to comply with labor regulations. Students from Responsible Investment and across campus celebrated the announcement as a victory, although HMC President and CEO Jane L. Mendillo denied that the decision was a response to HEI’s labor practices.

Activists amped up their efforts late spring semester, calling for greater transparency in Harvard’s investment strategy from HMC. Responsible Investment founded the Fair Harvard Fund, a campaign for a social choice fund within Harvard’s endowment that would be invested with an eye toward social good. The Undergraduate Council endorsed the initiative, and within 10 weeks of its creation over 400 people had donated to the cause.

During the fall, students turned their attention to individual investments within Harvard’s portfolio. Divest Harvard, Harvard’s chapter of Students For a Just and Stable Future, called for HMC to divest from companies involved in the fossil fuel industry. That effort, coupled with continued calls for Harvard to create a social choice fund, resulted in two successful student referenda related to the University’s investment strategy.

Student activists celebrated the University’s decision in December to create a social choice fund. Contributions to the fund will be invested with an eye towards “social responsibility considerations.” But the fight over divestment remains stalled, as students continue to advocate for changes to the University’s investment strategy after Harvard said that it is is “not considering” divestment. Even so, University leaders have promised to meet with students in the new year to discuss divestment, ensuring that the conversation about Harvard’s investment strategy will continue.

4. Men’s Basketball Goes to March Madness

After a 66-year drought, the Harvard men's basketball team returned to college basketball's biggest stage. The Crimson claimed its first-ever outright Ivy title and in doing so earned a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1946.

Boasting a 26-4 overall record, the Crimson was tabbed a No. 12 seed and was slotted to face No. 5 Vanderbilt—which was coming off a victory over No. 1 Kentucky in the SEC Championship—in Albuquerque, N.M. In front of a contingent of Harvard fans that included a member of the Crimson's 1946 squad and the Harvard University Band, the Crimson met the Commodores on March 15.

Harvard came out slow, falling behind by double-digits by the end of the first period. But carried by the hot shooting of then-sophomore wing Laurent Rivard—who finished with a team-high 20 points—the Crimson managed to pull within five, 70-65, with 1:51 to go. It was all Vanderbilt from there, as the Commodores closed the game on a 9-5 run to secure a 79-70 victory, ending Harvard’s storybook season.

Although a postseason victory remained elusive, the Crimson’s appearance in the tournament cemented its rise as a force to be reckoned with after decades of mediocrity on the basketball court.

3. Elizabeth Warren Is Elected to the Senate

Just days after declaring her candidacy for the U.S. Senate in September 2011, Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren assured a crowd of supporters that "there's nobody in this country who got rich on his own." That comment, which went viral on YouTube and polarized much of the Massachusetts electorate, set the stage for one of the country's fiercest and most expensive U.S. Senate races in recent history—a race that pulled Harvard into the political spotlight.

Warren and incumbent Republican Scott Brown dueled over everything from taxes, to third-party advertising, to Warren's self-proclaimed Native American heritage, which Brown alleged was little more than a lie. Warren ascended as a national liberal cause célèbre, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and demonstrating close ties to President Obama. The candidates combined to shatter state fundraising records, together bringing in over $70 million. Closer to home, Warren found robust financial and intellectual support from Harvard colleagues, who time and time again stepped up to bat for her campaign.

Beneath the surface of each battle on the campaign trail lay stark differences between the candidates’ fiscal and social stances, with Warren pledging bigger government and a tighter tax code and Brown promising a return to bipartisanship. Brown, a moderate Republican with widespread support at home, was vying for the nearly impossible: reelection in one of the bluest states in the country. But ultimately it was Warren, a leader of the intellectual left and longtime consumer advocate, who successfully transitioned from professor to politician to become the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.

2. Harvard Launches edX

The University made a Harvard education available to the masses in May when it announced the creation of edX—a free not-for-profit online learning venture founded in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Diving into the the rapidly growing realm of virtual education, each institution invested $30 million in the program. Administrators touted edX as an opportunity to research the way that people learn as well as its potential to be integrated into the traditional classroom. “This is about experimentation; it’s about research; it’s about rethinking education,” Garber said at the time of the program’s launch.

By the time HarvardX—the University’s branch of the virtual learning platform—officially went live for its first day of school in October, over 100,000 people had registered to take Harvard courses online. The platform grew throughout the fall semester. The University of Texas, Wellesley College, and Georgetown University signed on to edX, joining Harvard, MIT, and the University of California, Berkeley, which had become a part of the program over the summer. Two local community colleges announced plans to offer a modified version of edX’s “Introduction to Computer Science and Programming,” an online class based on MIT’s introductory computer science course.

In December, edX announced an expanded roster of spring semester classes that includes its first courses in the humanities and social sciences. Still, the realm of virtual learning is new and relatively unexplored territory, and Harvard affiliates remain uncertain about what impact edX might have on the future of higher education.

1. Harvard Investigates an ‘Unprecedented’ Cheating Scandal

Five days before the start of the fall semester, Harvard administrators took the unusual step of calling in media outlets to make an announcement: they had a cheating scandal on their hands bigger than anyone could remember. After being tipped off by a professor who had spotted suspicious similarities in his students’ final take-home exams, the Administrative Board had launched an investigation that expanded to include 125 undergraduates in last spring’s Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress” course. The students were accused of plagiarizing or inappropriately collaborating on the exam, and if found guilty, faced a punishment that could be as severe as the requirement to withdraw from the College for a year.

It was a scandal that would rock Harvard’s campus. Within days, media outlets reported that Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, the co-captains of the men’s basketball team, planned to withdraw from the College due to their involvement in the scandal. In the classrooms, professors included new guidelines about appropriate collaboration on their syllabi, while still defending take-home exams as a valuable method of assessment. In University Hall, administrators redrew their schedules and pushed aside longterm projects to cope with the fallout of the investigation, and a dean started work in a new position created to address academic integrity on campus.

Shockwaves from the scandal reverberated beyond Cambridge. At Yale, administrators discouraged their own professors from administering take-home exams in the wake of the scandal at Harvard. And on the national stage, the scandal sparked a debate among pundits and observers about academic integrity in the digital age, the proper limits of peer collaboration, and the intersection of athletics and academics on college campuses.

Since their first announcement, administrators have stayed tight-lipped about the ongoing investigation, ensuring that the conversation will continue into 2013.