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Opening of term greetings
Harry R. Lewis
Gordon McKay Professor
of Computer Science
Dean of Harvard College |
 |
University Hall 4,
Harvard College
Cambridge, MA 02138
E-mail:
lewis@harvard.edu
Phone: (617) 495-1555
FAX: (617) 496-8268 |
August 31, 2000
Dear Harvard Students,
I hope you have had a productive and enjoyable summer and that you have
arrived in Cambridge rested and invigorated. I want to bring you up to
date on news items of interest.
WHERE ARE WE?
University Hall, a historically important Bulfinch building completed in
1816, has been closed for a major renovation. When the work has been
finished, the building will be wheelchair-accessible,
and will for the first time have reliable heating, cooling, plumbing, and
wiring. At the same time, historically sensitive finishes and fixtures
will be restored. The interior has been largely gutted, and the
challenging work has begun of installing an elevator shaft and threading
new pipes, wires, and fiberoptics around the massive wooden beams and
granite stairs. We expect to return to our restored offices on the first
floor of University Hall by the beginning of the spring term.
For the fall term, the office of the Dean of Harvard College is located at
the Engineering Sciences Lab, 40 Oxford Street --- beyond the Museum of
Comparative Zoology, on the same side of the street, or at the end of
Everett Street if you are coming from the Quad. We are on the fourth
floor, with elevator access through the rear entrance to the building.
Located here are my own office and the offices of Deans Dingman,
Illingworth, Herschbach, Epps, and Avery, Ms. Judy Fox, and Dr. S. Allen
Counter. Come here for the Housing Office and the Ann Radcliffe Trust,
and other matters for which you might have gone to the middle or south
part of the first floor of University Hall.
What was the north end of the first floor of University Hall, the office
of the Dean of Undergraduate Education, including Deans Pedersen,
Wolcowitz, and Foster, is temporarily located at 1033 Massachusetts
Avenue. This is an office building shortly beyond Crate and Barrel on the
left side of Massachusetts Avenue, a few minutes' walk from Lamont
Library and the Barker Center. This is also the location of all the other
occupants of University Hall, including Jeremy Knowles, Dean of the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences. All email addresses and telephone numbers
are unchanged, and mail addressed to University Hall will still reach any
of us at the appropriate building.
An unhappy consequence of this renovation project is that there will be
some inconvenience to residents of freshman dormitories located near
University Hall due to the construction activities. The Widener Library
renovation project will also be continuing through this year and those
activities may from time to time disturb residents of Wigglesworth.
Harvard will do its best to minimize the disturbance caused by these
projects in the early morning hours, and we regret any unavoidable noise.
We are all part of an effort to ensure that the integrity of the Yard
buildings is maintained for future centuries as our predecessors
maintained them for us.
THE PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH
President Rudenstine announced last spring his intention to step down as
President at the end of this academic year. A search committee consisting
of members of Harvard's governing boards has been working over the
summer. Students will be receiving letters directly from the committee,
and I urge you to respond if you have views or ideas to share. I am
confident that undergraduate needs are very much on the minds of the
committee, and that the committee would welcome hearing directly from
students on what those needs are.
NEW FACES
We welcome two new Master couples: Professors Tom and Verena Conley to
Kirkland House, and Professor Lino Pertile and Ms. Anna Bensted to Eliot
House. Several Houses have new Allston Burr Senior Tutors: Dr. John
O'Keefe will be Senior Tutor in Dunster House, Dr. Oona Ceder will be
Senior Tutor in Eliot House, Mr. Glenn Magid
will be Acting Senior Tutor in Leverett House, and Dr. Courtney Bickel
Lamberth will be Acting Senior Tutor in Winthrop House.
Two new deans have also joined the Freshman Dean's Office. Dr. James
Mancall will take over as Assistant Dean for Dean Sarah Birmingham
Drummond. And Dr. Rory
A. W. Browne assumes the role of Associate Dean of Freshmen from
Dr. D. E. Lorraine Sterritt. Dean Browne is no stranger to the College, as
he was Allston Burr Senior Tutor in Quincy House for several years.
Returning students may wish to know that Dean Wendy Franz's name is now
Wendy E. F. Torrance (wtorran@fas).
THE HASTY PUDDING THEATER
As a result of the very serious financial problems of the Institute of
1770, parent organization of the Hasty Pudding Club and Theatricals, the
Faculty of Arts and Sciences expects to assume responsibility for the
Hasty Pudding Theater building. The building is in serious disrepair,
though there is no immediate danger to those using it. In the near future
it will require a major renovation, costing $10 million or more. In
preparation for planning that renovation, a committee, chaired by Dean
David Illingworth, has been formed to consider the programmatic needs
that can be accommodated in this historic and centrally located
structure, consisting both of a small theater and several floors of rooms
that have been used for a variety of purposes over time.
A fundamental goal is to maintain and restore the theater space for
undergraduate dramatics, and in particular for the Hasty Pudding
Theatricals, which could well have lost its venue without our
intervention. We anticipate that the singing groups which have used
the building will continue to have access to it. We also hope to
accommodate the needs of some of the other performance groups on
campus, both musical and theatrical, for which practice and performance
space are in critically short supply.
There are a great many other space needs for undergraduate affairs,
among them meeting rooms, offices for student groups, space for
important College offices heavily used by undergraduates, and social space
that could be reserved for occasional receptions or parties. The
committee will be looking for student help in determining what needs
are most critical, and during the course of the year will inform the
community of how those ideas should be put forward.
PORTAL PAGES
Portal pages are a new customizable web interface to useful
University information, automatically initialized with information about
your own courses, residence, and other links and calendar information
within Harvard and beyond. Because the personalized information is based
on data in official University databases, this information is always
up-to-date with the University's own records. Portal pages are accessed by
using your secure PIN (Personal Identification Number). If you don't have
a PIN or have forgotten it, go to http://www.pin1.harvard.edu/. When you have a PIN, to access your portal
page, go to http://my.harvard.edu and try it!
DEVELOPMENTS RELATED TO WOMEN AND GENDER
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study came into existence last
October, and we welcome its first dean, Professor Drew Gilpin Faust, who
will be taking up her duties at midyear. This year's freshmen are the
first undergraduate class in which men and women
students have exactly the same official status in the University. This
shift will have little visible consequence for most students, but several
developments of significance should be noted.
The old $5 Radcliffe Union of Students fee has disappeared from the term
bills of women students.
The Ann Radcliffe Trust was constituted last year; this is an office in
the College, headed by Dean Karen Avery, dedicated to highlighting women
and women's issues in the College. It will continue to sponsor events,
talks, and discussions involving prominent women or of
special interest to women students. It worked with student groups last
year to support two major conferences, one on Women in Science and
another on the Jewish Superwoman. Student groups with ideas of other
events that will have significant community impact should be in touch
with Dean Avery (avery@fas).
In addition, the Ann Radcliffe Trust will be running a grants process
this year, aimed at directly funding student groups planning activities
that raise awareness of women's issues on campus. The first grant
application deadline is October 4, 2000.
Finally, I would note that one lingering small difference between
opportunities available to men and women students has been eliminated.
Though almost all Harvard College prizes, scholarships, and fellowships
were opened to women in 1977, a very small number continued to be
available only to one gender. In the future, all College prizes and
fellowships will be open to both men and women. (A few athletic prizes
are gender-restricted, though available in corresponding pairs for men
and women, because they are prizes for participants in different
categories of sports.)
ECSTASY AND OTHER DRUGS
I should like to take a moment to urge any student contemplating the use
of one of the "Club Drugs" which are widely available in the Boston
area to become informed about their nature and effects. In particular, use
of "Ecstasy" (MDMA, methylenedioxymethamphetamine) by college students
has increased significantly in the past year, and "GHB"
(gammahydroxybutyrate) has also been in use, both as an intoxicant and as
a "date-rape drug." Though it is common misinformation that these drugs
are relatively safe and harmless with mainly euphoriant or
pleasure-enhancing effects, Ecstasy has been associated with heart and
kidney failure, and GHB with life-ending depression of the central
nervous system. Ecstasy has been shown to cause long-lasting and perhaps
permanent damage to neurons that release serotonin. Two individuals
nearly died in a Harvard building last year after consumption of GHB
caused them to stop breathing. Uncertainties about the origin and
composition of drugs available on the street make both toxicity and
concentration highly unreliable, and use in conjunction with alcohol can
both cloud the user's judgment and compound the physiological effects of
these drugs. For more information, here are some Web pages to consult:
Please don't put
your health and your life in danger by using these drugs. Anyone
concerned about their use of drugs or alcohol can get confidential help
at HUHS.
VOTE!
The election on November 7, 2000 will set this country's direction for the
time you will be in college, and beyond. If you are a US citizen, exercise
your right as a member of this democracy. The last day to register to
vote in Massachusetts for this election is October 18, 2000. For
information on how to register and how to request a voter registration
form, visit the website established by the Secretary of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts at http://www.state.ma.us/sec/ele/elestu/stuidx.htm. Both Massachusetts
and Federal Voter Registration Forms are available at this site. The
Federal Election Commission provides voter registration information at
http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.htm. If you are a registered voter
and you will not be able to go to your polling place at the time of the
election, be sure to request an absentee ballot. These must arrive in
the appropriate state office no later than noon of the day before the
election.
I send my best wishes for the coming academic year, and hope that you
will use the resources here to your best advantage.
Deans, Masters, Senior Tutors, Tutors, Proctors, faculty, HUHS, the Bureau
of Study Counsel, the Office for Career Services, student peer groups ---
as well as your families and friends --- stand ready to help; if the first
person you talk to doesn't have the answers, don't hesitate to contact
others in search of support. To acknowledge confusion and to ask
questions are signs of maturity, not weakness. In a moving speech
delivered by graduating senior Brooke Ellison last spring, she said, "As
much as we would like to take credit for our own accomplishments, none of
us would be here had it not been for the efforts and caring of those who
helped along the way. Our mutual dependence is so often misdiagnosed as
self-reliance." Please let others know what they can do to help you
realize your ambitions and dreams.
Sincerely yours,
Harry R. Lewis
Harvard College
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