June 08, 2000

Eleven to receive honorary degrees at Commencement
Eight men and three women will receive honorary degrees in Harvard’s 349th Commencement Exercises this morning, including Amartya Sen, who also will deliver this year’s Commencement Address along with Seamus Heaney, who will deliver a special poetry reading.

Seniors brave storm for Baccalaureate
Taking refuge from a powerful nor’easter in Harvard’s best-known chapel, graduating seniors gathered in caps and gowns for the traditional Baccalaureate Service on Tuesday afternoon at the Memorial Church. The service, while solemn at times, was exuberant, humorous, and moving, filled with music, religious readings, and speeches. Not even the steady rain outside could dampen the spirits of those in the august chamber.

The whys and woes of beauty pageants
They wore the latest colors of lipstick and matching eyeliner. Some had fake hair and even fake teeth. They pranced on stage in sequined gowns and rhinestone-studded jeans.

Tintinnabulation will reign over Cambridge
The bells will begin to ring at 11:40 a.m., just after the sheriff of Middlesex County declares the Commencement Exercises adjourned. They will ring for approximately 15 minutes.

Graduates cross bridge to learning
Thirty-eight Harvard Faculty Club workers graduated from the University's first "Bridge" program at ceremonies at the Faculty Club on June 4. The pilot program, which provides basic literacy and language skills and/or courses leading to a high school equivalency degree, will serve as a model for a larger program. expected to reach about 500 employees each year beginning in September.

At 80, Radcliffe graduate comes back for diploma
Her memories are faded by the years, but also sweetened, perhaps, by the romanticism of times gone by.

Law professor Clark Byse honored for 60 years of service
Harvard Law School Byrne Professor of Administrative Law Emeritus Clark Byse will receive the Harvard Law School Association (HLSA) Award in honor of his 60-year teaching career. Law School Dean Robert Clark and HLSA President-elect Robert Shapiro presented the award to Byse during ceremonies on Wednesday, June 7, at 12:00 p.m., at Jarvis Field, 14 Everett Street, Cambridge.

Harvard Employment Office hosting Career Forum on June 13
Harvard's Employment Office, in consultation with a University-wide organizing committee, is hosting Career Forum 2000 on Tuesday, June 13. This year's event will be held from noon to 7 p.m. at the Graduate School of Design's Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street (corner of Cambridge and Quincy streets).

Class Day speakers touch all with spirit, humor
Like the enthusiastic reviewer of the proverbial blockbuster novel, audience members of Wednesday’s Senior Class Day program might have come away exclaiming, "I laughed, I cried."

Late Night humor on Class Day
It was almost as if someone dropped laughing gas on Harvard Yard.

Conant fellows chosen
Gone for good is the notion that "town and gown" move in separate orbits. Thanks to programs such as the Conant Fellowship Fund at the Graduate School of Education, relations between the University and local public schools are better than ever. Established in 1986 in honor of James Bryant Conant, a former Harvard president (1933-53) and fan of public education, the fund brings approximately six outstanding teachers and administrators each year from Boston and Cambridge to GSE as Conant Fellows. Those chosen to receive full tuition grants for the 2000-01 academic year include:

It's what counts
30,000 people expected to attend morning exercises on Commencement Day

Printers get ready by degrees
It is 11 on a balmy spring night. Kathy Pendrak and Brenda Waldron, prepress operators at Harvard Printing and Publications Services (HPPS), sit at computer terminals massaging mountains of data. Prepress Manager Stephen Grayman toils in the same manner, so that student names, degrees, schools, and honors will print error-free on one of HPPS’ enormous printers the following morning.

Divinity School presents three with annual awards
Harvard Divinity School has announced three recipients of the awards that are presented each June on its Alumni/ae Day. This year, on June 7, the First Decade Award was given to both Mark Cave and Jacob Schramm, and the Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Award was given to the Rev. Carl R. Scovel.

Harvard Senior Sounds Out Future With Rare Combined Degree
A certain chord will strike a certain reaction in certain people. The dynamic underlying that reaction is something Aaron Einbond may spend the rest of his life pursuing.

Profile in courage (and loyalty)
It is indicative of Brooke Ellison’s perspective on life that when she talks about the worst thing that ever happened to her, she emphasizes what went right rather than what went wrong.

Edington named first Epps Fellow and Chaplain to Harvard College
The Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church, has announced the appointment of The Reverend Mark D. W. Edington as the first Archie C. Epps Fellow and Chaplain to Harvard College.

Faculty fellows in ethics named
The Center for Ethics and the Professions has selected the Faculty Fellows in Ethics for the 2000-01 academic year. Six scholars who study ethical problems in government, law, medicine, and public policy were chosen from a pool of applicants from colleges, universities, and professional institutions throughout the United States and 25 other countries.

Group looking for a few good fellows
Harvard graduate students who are writing dissertations or engaged in major research on topics in practical ethics are invited to apply for 2001-02 Graduate Fellowships in Ethics. The deadline is Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2000. For an information packet, please contact the Center for Ethics and the Professions, Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138; call (617) 495-1336; fax (617) 496-6104; e-mail ethics@harvard.edu, or visit the Website at http://www.ethics.harvard.edu.

Extension School names winners of student prizes, faculty awards
This year, the Extension School’s Commencement Speaker award will go to Kimberly Parke, A.L.M. ’00, assistant director for undergraduate degree programs at Harvard Extension School. The title of her talk will be "The Pocket Value of a Liberal Arts Education."

Gagnon elected president of Board of Overseers
Sharon Elliott Gagnon, A.M. '65, Ph.D. '72, has been elected President of the University's Board of Overseers for 2000-01. She will assume the post after Commencement, succeeding Joan Hutchins '61.

'Making life less difficult for one another'
"I live in a place called Raheny," says Sinead Walsh ’00, a tall fair-skinned woman with pale blue eyes. "Raheny is five miles away from town" – Dublin, Ireland – "and it’s also five miles away from Howth."

Volunteers sought for Voyage
Do you have a passion for art? Do you enjoy working with young people?

Memorial gathering for Vosgerchian
A memorial gathering with music in remembrance of Luise Vosgerchian will take place on Sept. 7, 2000, at 7:30 p.m., in Sanders Theatre. There will be a special performance by Lynn Chang and Yo-Yo Ma.

Graduates who have already commenced
Whatever descriptive phrases may be applied to Ourania N. Tserotas, you may be fairly sure that "stick-in-the-mud" will not be one of them.

Travel Grants and Fellowships in Asian Studies
The Asia Center is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2000-01 travel grants to Asia. This year, the Asia Center – together with the John K. Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Korea Institute, and the Concentration in East Asian Studies – has funded 43 undergraduate and 26 graduate students to conduct research in Asia over the summer, as well as during the academic year. Some $250,000 was awarded during this granting period.

Dean has his day
With only 365 of them per year and a goodly portion occupied with Christmas, Passover, Halloween, and the like, it’s not everyone who gets a day named after him.

Shalala urges KSG grads to build a better nation
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala helped the Kennedy School of Government’s Class of 2000 bid adieu to Harvard Wednesday, dubbing them "full-fledged Policy Wonks" and urging them to strive to make the world a better place.

Don’t Look Back -- Senior Filmmaker Randy Bell Has Much to Look Forward to
Those of us who were raised in the eighties – who thought Reagan, new wave music, and the threat of nuclear war defined American culture – often wish we had been born into a more idealistic, revolutionary generation (or at least a more stylish one). Haunted by the nation’s collective memory of better, more meaningful times, we are the living backlash to the spirited, peace-loving 60s generation. Instead of taking to the streets and marching for justice, we danced in seductive fluorescent costumes to songs like "Beat It" and "Material Girl." Rather than active debate, we engaged in passive viewing – we watched sitcoms and movies and we, the generation commonly known as "X," are still struggling to overcome our media addiction and ideological complacency in search of more transcendent values. To find these values, we look to history for inspiration – for lessons in the art of rebellion.

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Announces 60 New Fellows
Sixty women and men from around the world have been awarded fellowships to pursue advanced work at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. For the first time in Radcliffe history – due to Radcliffe’s formal merger with Harvard last year – all 60 fellows are eligible for stipends.

Police Log
Following are some of the incidents reported to the Harvard University Police Department for the week ending June 3. The official log is located at Police Headquarters, 29 Garden St.

PBK speakers address search for identity
Being a citizen of the world – cosmopolitanism – was the theme explored by Anthony Appiah in his talk Tuesday morning at the Phi Beta Kappa Literary Exercises held in Sanders Theatre.

Notes

Newsmakers

Jerome T. Murphy to step down as Dean in 2001
Jerome T. Murphy, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 1992, announced that he will step down as Dean in June 2001. After a year's sabbatical, Murphy will return to the School and continue to teach as the Harold Howe II Professor of Education.

Honoring history
Destroyed by fire in 1956, and restored to its original design in 1999, the spire on top of Memorial Hall was rededicated at a ceremony on May 11. Cambridge Historical Commission executive director Charles M. Sullivan M.C.P. '70 and commission chair William B. King '54, L.L.B. '59 announced a Preservation Award from the commission during the ceremony. Receiving the award on behalf of the University were Vice President for Administration Sally Zeckhauser and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles.

Lumry Gift Sparks New Investments in Information Technology
The University will make significant new investments in the field of information technology, especially as it relates to the Internet and entrepreneurial studies. Income from a recent $7 million gift from Rufus W. Lumry III to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Harvard Business School (HBS) will support the creation of the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center in the FAS’s Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS), and will fund the Lumry Family Professorship at Harvard Business School.

Newsman Kellogg's beat is the African continent
When Harvard senior Alex Kellogg finished his semester abroad in the spring of 1998, he went to the Nairobi airport with the rest of his class. But while they were saying farewell to Kenya, he was saying farewell to them.

Business School breaks ground for Hawes Hall
The Business School (HBS) held a groundbreaking ceremony on June 1 for Hawes Hall. Hawes Hall will provide the Business School with a critical resource to continue its core mission of educating leaders. Designed to encourage the dynamic interchange between faculty and students, classrooms, technology, and gathering areas will enable interactive exchange with technology and progressive teaching methods grounded in the case method.

Three honored with GSAS Centennial Medals
A medical educator, a philosopher, and an historian received Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Centennial Medals at a ceremony on Wednesday, June 7, at the Faculty Club.

Grad Grozier motors toward career in journalism
It should be quite a scene next week in the small bayou town of Pass Christian, Miss., when Ted Grozier arrives.