Harvard University (incorporated by The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded on September 8, 1636 by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States"Higher education in America began with Harvard": In its first year, seven of the original nine students left to fight in the English Civil War.
Harvard was also founded as a school to educate American Indians in order to train them as ministers among their tribes. Harvard's Charter of 1650 calls for "the education of the English and Indian youth of this Country in knowledge and godliness." Indeed, Harvard and missionaries to the local tribes were intricately connected. The first Bible to be printed in the entire North American continent was printed at Harvard in an Indian language, Massachusett. Termed the Eliot Bible since it was translated by John Eliot, this book was used to facilitate conversion of Indians, ideally by Harvard-educated Indians themselves. Harvard's first American Indian graduate, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck from the Wampanoag tribe, was a member of the class of 1665. Caleb and other students lived and studied in a dormitory known as the Indian College, which was founded in 1655 under then-President Charles Chauncy. In 1698 it was torn down owing to neglect. The bricks of the former Indian College were later used to build the first Stoughton Hall. Today a plaque on the SE side of Matthews Hall in Harvard Yard, the approximate site of the Indian College, commemorates the first American Indian students who lived and studied at Harvard University.
Rhinoceros sculpture "Bessie" in front of the Biological Laboratories.
The connection to the Puritans can be seen in the fact that, for its first few centuries of existence, the Harvard Board of Overseers included, along with certain commonwealth officials, the ministers of six local congregations (Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury and Watertown), who today, although no longer so empowered, are still by custom allowed seats on the dais at commencement exercises.
Despite the Puritan atmosphere, from the beginning the intent was to provide a full liberal education such as that offered at European universities, including the rudiments of mathematics and science ('natural philosophy') as well as classical literature and philosophy.
In 1755, Harvard's oldest endowed lectures, the prestigious Dudleian lectures on religion, were first held. During the Revolutionary War, General Washington and the Continental Army quartered in Harvard buildings and organized military exercises in Cambridge Common.
Between 1800 and 1870 a transformation of Harvard occurred which E. Digby BaltzellBaltzell, D. E. & Schneiderman, H. G. (1994). Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification." Transaction Publishers, ISBN 1560000481. The material cited is a review of a book by Ronald Story (1980), The Forging of an Aristocracy: Harvard and the Boston Upper Class, 1800-1870, Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0819550442. calls "privatization." Harvard had prosperred while Federalists controlled state government, but "in 1824 the federalist party was finally defeated forever in Massachusetts; the triumphant Jeffersonian-Republicans cut off all state funds." By 1870, the "magistrates and ministers" on the Board of Overseers had been completely "replaced by Harvard alumni drawn primarily from the ranks of Boston's upper-class business and professional community" and funded by private endowment.
During this period, Harvard experienced unparalleled growth that put it into a different category from other colleges. Ronald Story notes in 1850, Harvard's total assets were "five times that of Amherst and Williams combined, and three times that of Yale.... By 1850, it was a genuine university, 'unequalled in facilities,' as a budding scholar put it by any other institution in America—the 'greatest University,' said another, 'in all creation'"Story, R. (1980). The Forging of an Aristocracy: Harvard and the Boston Upper Class, 1800-1870''. Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0819550442 (p. 50: Harvard's explosive growth from 1800 to 1850 separate it from other colleges). Story also notes that "all the evidence... points to the four decades from 1815 to 1855 as the era when parents, in Henry Adams's words, began 'sending their children to Harvard College for the sake of its social advantages'"Story, R. (1980). op. cit. p. 97, (1815-1855 as the era when Harvard began to be perceived as socially advantageous).
Steinberg notes that "a climate of intolerance prevailed in many eastern colleges long before discriminatory quotas were contemplated" and noted that "Jews tended to avoid such campuses as Yale and Princeton, which had reputations for bigotry.... Under President Eliot's administration, Harvard earned a reputation as the most liberal and democratic of the Big Three, and therefore Jews did not feel that the avenue to a prestigious college was altogether closed"Steinberg, S. (2001). The Ethnic Myth. Beacon Press, ISBN 080704153X. (Harvard most democratic of the Big Three under Eliot, p. 234).
Harvard became the bastion of a distinctly Protestant elite—the so-called Boston Brahmin class—and continued to be so well into the 20th century. Its discriminatory policies against immigrants, Catholics and Jews were partly responsible for the founding of Boston College in 1863 and Brandeis University in 1948.Levenson, Michael (2006), "Brandeis pulls artwork...." The Boston Globe,May 3, 2006:"Brandeis, a nonsectarian institution, was founded in 1948, by American Jews seeking to establish a university free from the quotas that Jews faced at elite colleges." The social milieu of 1880s Harvard is depicted in Owen Wister's Philosophy 4, which contrasts the character and demeanor of two undergraduates who "had colonial names (Rogers, I think, and Schuyler)" with that of their tutor, one Oscar Maironi, whose "parents had come over in the steerage.", p. 23: "had colonial names;" p. 36, "Bertie's and Billy's parents owned town and country houses in New York. The parents of Oscar had come over in the steerage. Money filled the pockets of Bertie and Billy; therefore were their heads empty of money and full of less cramping thoughts. Oscar had fallen upon the reverse of this fate. Calculation was his second nature." Free ebook of Philosophy 4, by Owen Wister at Project Gutenberg
Between 1906 and 1922, Jewish enrollment at Harvard increased from 6% to 20%, and in June 1922, under President Lowell, Harvard announced a Jewish quota. Other universities had done this surreptitiously. Lowell did it in a forthright way, and positioned it as means of combatting anti-semitism, writing that "anti-Semitic feeling among the students is increasing, and it grows in proportion to the increase in the number of Jews.... when... the number of Jews was small, the race antagonism was small also." pp. 21-23; quotes full text policy announcement, explains the openness by suggesting Lowell perceived his actions to be forthright and courageous and as motivated by a wish to restrict the growth of campus anti-semitism. The social milieu of 1940s Harvard is presented in Myron Kaufman's 1957 novel, Remember Me to God, which follows the life of a Jewish undergraduate as he attempts to navigate the shoals of casual antisemitism, be recognized as a "gentleman," and be accepted into "The Pudding."
In 2002, it was revealed by The Crimson that in 1920 "Harvard University maliciously persecuted and harassed" those it believed to be gay via a "Secret Court" led by former Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell. The inquistions and expulsions carried out by this tribunal, in conjunction with the "vindictive tenacity of the university in ensuring that the stigmatization of the expelled students would persist throughout their productive lives" led to two suicides. After the article was published, Harvard President Lawrence Summers characterized the episode as "part of a past that we have rightly left behind", and "abhorrent and an affront to the values of our university".Wright, W. (2005). Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals, St. Martin's Press, New York. ISBN 0312322712.
Recent developments
Destroyed by fire in the 1950s, Memorial Hall's ornate tower was rebuilt in 1999
On February 21, 2006, president Lawrence Summers announced his intention to resign the presidency, effective June 30, 2006. His resignation came just one week before a second planned vote of no confidence by the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Former president Derek Bok now serves as interim president, as of July 1. Members of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which instructs graduate students in GSAS and undergraduates in Harvard College, had passed an earlier motion of "lack of confidence" in Summers' leadership on March 15, 2005 by a 218-185 vote, with 18 abstentions. The 2005 motion was precipitated by comments about the causes of gender demographics in academia made at a closed academic conference and leaked to the press.Bombardieri, M. (2005). Summers' remarks on women draw fire. The Boston Globe, January 172005. In response, Summers convened two committees to study this issue: the Task Force on Women Faculty and the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering. Summers had also pledged $50 million to support their recommendations and other proposed reforms.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Harvard, along with numerous other institutions of higher education across the United States and Canada, offered to take in students who were unable to attend universities and colleges that were closed for the fall semester. Twenty-five students were admitted to the College, and the Law School made similar arrangements. Tuition was not charged and housing was provided.
* The Harvard Crimson, one of the nation's oldest daily college newspapers. Founded in 1873, it counts among its many editors numerous Pulitzer Prize winners and two U.S. Presidents, John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. * The Harvard Independent an alternative weekly newspaper originally founded in 1971 to provide a more conservative alternative to the then-radical Crimson. * The Harvard Lampoon, an undergraduate humor organization and publication founded in 1876 and rival to the Harvard Crimson. The erratically produced magazine was originally modelled on the former British satirical periodical Punch, and has outlived it to become the world's second-oldest humor magazine (after the Yale Record). Conan O'Brien was president of the Lampoon. The National Lampoon was founded as an offshoot in 1970 from the Harvard publication. * The Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), a 501c3 non-profit organization which serves as the umbrella organization for 78 public service programs at Harvard. PBHA has 1600 volunteers which serve over 10,000 people in the greater Boston area. Notable alums include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, David Souter, and John F. Kennedy. * The Harvard Advocate, the oldest college literary publication in the country. Past members include T.S. Eliot and Theodore Roosevelt. * The Harvard Din & Tonics, a world-renowned 13-voice male jazz a cappella group formed in 1979. * The Radcliffe Pitches, Harvard's first female a cappella group, founded in 1975. * WHRB (95.3FM Cambridge), the campus radio station, run exclusively by Harvard students, and given space on the Harvard campus in the basement of Pennypacker Hall, a freshman dorm. Known throughout the Bostonmetropolitan area for its classical, jazz, underground rock and blues programming, WHRB uses the radio "Orgy" format, where the entire catalog of a certain band, record, or artist is played in sequence.
The Harvard Lampoon "castle" with its characteristic rooftop ibis and its purple and yellow door
* The Harvard Institute of Politics, a living memorial to John F. Kennedy that promotes public service among undergraduates. * Harvard University Choir, the oldest university choir in the nation, formally established in 1834 but in existence since the eighteenth century, performs the oldest Christmas Carol Services in continuous existence in North America. * Harvard Glee Club, the oldest college chorus in America, founded in 1858. * Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, founded in 1808. * Harvard University Band, performs at sporting events, founded in 1919. * Harvard Model Congress, the nation's oldest and largest congressional simulation conference, provides thousands of high school students from across the U.S. and abroad with the opportunity to experience American government first-hand. * The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations is Harvard's oldest student group dedicated to Asian International Relations. It organizes Harvard's largest annual event in Asia. * Harvard Radcliffe Television produces the world's oldest and longest running college soap opera, Ivory Tower, and is the only television organization on campus. * The Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) is the largest dramatic club on campus, which twice a year organises a common casting call for many student productions across the campus. Other drama clubs at Harvard include the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Club; the Harvard Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Club; the Harvard Theatre Advisory Group (HTAG); and the Sunken Garden theatrical group.
Seventy-five Nobel Prize winners are affiliated with the university. Since 1974, nineteen Nobel Prize winners and fifteen winners of the New York literary award, the Pulitzer Prize, have served on the Harvard faculty.
In 1893, Baedeker's guidebook called Harvard "the oldest, richest, and most famous of American seats of learning.", p. 83. (Facsimile reprint of original, published in Leipzig and New York) The first two facts remain true today; the third is also arguably true. As of 2005, Harvard was ranked first among world universities by Times Higher Education Supplement and the Academic Ranking of World Universities and shared the first spot with Princeton in US News and World Report rankings.
Perhaps because of this prominence, Harvard is the target of a number of criticisms, some of them leveled at other research-based American universities. It has been accused of grade inflation, as have other colleges and universities.Rosane, O. (2006). College Administrators Take On Inflated Grade Averages. Columbia Spectator, March 202006. In the 2004-2005 school year, about half of all grades awarded at Harvard were A or A-minuses (Harvard does not award A-plus grades). In 2006 Dean Benedict Gross noted that "grade inflation continues to be a problem," and praised Princeton's new policy limiting A grades to 35 percent in most undergraduate classes and 55 percent for junior and senior independent work (the percentage of grades of A-minus or above for undergraduate courses after its adoption dropped to 40.9 in 2004-05). However, a review of the SAT scores of entering students at Harvard over the past two decades shows that the rise in GPAs has been matched by a virtually linear rise in both verbal and math SAT scores of entering students (even after correcting for the renorming of the test in the mid-1990s), suggesting that the quality of the student body and its motivation have also increased.Kohn, A. (2002). The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation. The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 82002. Regardless, after media criticism, Harvard reduced the number of students who receive Latin honors from 90% in 2004 to 60% in 2005. Moreover, the prestigious honors of "John Harvard Scholar" and "Harvard College Scholar" will now be given only to the top 5 percent and the next 5 percent of each class--essentially, those with a GPA of 3.8 or above.No author given. (2003). Brevia. Harvard Magazine, January-February 2003.Milzoff, R. M., Paley, A. R., & Reed, B. J. (2001). Grade Inflation is Real. Fifteen MinutesMarch 12001.Bombardieri, M. & Schweitzer, S. (2006). "At Harvard, more concern for top grades." The Boston Globe, February 122006. p. B3 (Benedict Gross quotes, 23.7% A/25% A- figures, characterized as an "all-time high.").Associated Press. (2004). Princeton becomes first to formally combat grade inflation. USA Today, April 262004.
In 2005, The Boston Globe reported obtaining a 21-page Harvard internal memorandum that expressed concern about undergraduate student satisfaction based on a 2002 Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) survey of 31 top universities.Bombardieri, M. (2005). Student life at Harvard lags peer schools, poll finds. The Boston Globe, March 292005. The Harvard internal memorandum noted that: "Harvard students are less satisfied with their undergraduate educations than the students at almost all of the other COFHE schools. Harvard student satisfaction compares even less favorably to satisfaction at our closest peer institutions." While the actual survey results as reported by the Globe are open to interpretation, the Harvard Crimson editorial board opined that "we believe the implications of this survey are significant, and the administration ought to make satisfying undergraduates a top priority for the near future." Anonymous. (2005). Unhappy Harvard. The Harvard Crimson, April 52005. The Globe quoted Lawrence Buell, former Harvard Dean of Undergraduate Education, as saying "I think we have to concede that we are letting our students down."
The Globe presented COFHE survey results and quotes from Harvard students that suggest problems with faculty availability, quality of instruction, quality of advising, social life on campus, and sense of community dating back to at least 1994. The magazine section of the Harvard Crimson echoed similar academic and social criticisms.Adams, W. L., Feinstein, B., Schneider, A. P., Thompson, A. H., & and Wasserstein, S. A. (2003). The Cult of Yale. The Harvard Crimson, November 202003.Feinstein, B., Schneider, A. P., Thompson, A. H., & Wasserstein, S. A. (2003). The Cult of Yale, Part II. The Harvard Crimson, November 202003.The Harvard Crimson quoted Harvard College Dean Benedict Gross as being aware of and committed to improving the issues raised by the COFHE survey.Ho, M. W. & Rogers, J. P. (2005). Harvard Students Less Satisfied Than Peers With Undergraduate Experience, Survey Finds. The Harvard Crimson, March 312005. However, in the same article, Harvard Professor Harvey C. Mansfield expressed skepticism at the willingness of faculty to improve the undergraduate experience: "I think the administration has a commitment to improving Harvard, but I don't think the majority of the faculty does. They are the ones who are complacent and deserve most of the criticism."
Outgoing Harvard President Larry Summers stated: "I think the single most important issue is faculty-student engagement, where there is too large a fraction of our teaching that takes place in sections taught by graduate students. Too much of it takes place in large lectures, where faculty members don't know students' names. And too little of it involves the kind of active learning experience, whether it's in a laboratory, a debate in a class, or whether it's a seminar dialogue, or whether it's joint work in an archives." [1]
The undergraduate admissions office's preference for children of alumni and affirmative action policies have been the subject of scrutiny and debate.Shapiro, J. (1997). A Second Look. Under new financial aid guidelines, parents in families with incomes of less than $60,000 will no longer be expected to contribute any money to the cost of attending Harvard for their children, including room and board. Families with incomes in the $60,000 to $80,000 range contribute an amount of only a few thousand dollars a year.
Harvard and its students have also been criticized for self-promotion in various forms. In "A Flood of Crimson Ink,"Steinberger, M. (2005). A Flood of Crimson Ink. Wall Street Journal, April 292005. Steinberger asserts that one reason Harvard receives much attention from the press is because "Harvard graduates are disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of American journalism."
*John T. Bethell, Harvard Observed: An Illustrated History of the University in the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, 1998, ISBN 0674377338 *John Trumpbour, ed., How Harvard Rules, Boston: South End Press, 1989, ISBN 0896082830 *Hoerr, John, We Can't Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard; Temple University Press, 1997, ISBN 1566395356
