What should Harvard to do help its students overcome the national sense that Harvard is a cesspool of elitism and pretentiousness? How do Harvard students talk about their “little school in Cambridge” when they arrive home for winter break? For Cantabs battling this existential crisis, a group of Harvard students will hold a workshop today helping their troubled peers tackle this huge issue.
The workshop, titled “Home from Harvard for the Holidays: Revisiting Relationships with Family and Friends,” is a tantalizingly alliterative event hosted by Harvard’s Office of Student Affairs. The event’s online description provides a quick glimpse into the magnificent mind of a typical Cantab, who, apparently, contemplates at this time of year questions such as “How do I talk about Harvard at home? and “Will I still fit in?”
Apart from these events, the student affairs office also holds workshops titled “Seasons of Grief” and “Self-Image Management,” issues clearly on par with the pressure of being treated differently now because, oh, that’s right: They go to Harvard now.
“Home from Harvard” took place from 1 to 2:30 p.m. today.
No word yet on how many students could afford to take 90 minutes out of their study schedules to attend this vital forum. In the meantime, Yalies will be gearing up for Mistletoad’s. #NoRegrets.
Harvard students just got a little less sexually repressed.
Harvard’s Committee on Student Life recently approved its first BDSM group — the Harvard College Munch — on campus. After meeting informally for about a year, the club has grown from a handful of people to roughly 30 members making up its quirky and kinky community.
As a recognized club on campus, Munch will be able to better advertise for events and help achieve its mission of removing the taboo surrounding kinky sex, said one group leader to The Harvard Crimson. Students interested in “sexploration” will appreciate the club’s institutional backing and expansion as an organization, the leader added.
Though the club has garnered national attention — The Huffington Post, NBC News and The Daily Beast have all run articles about Munch — it is not the first of its kind on a college campus. Rather, Harvard has joined the ranks of schools such as the University of Chicago, Columbia, Tufts and the University of Minnesota that already boast clubs dedicated to particular types of sex.
While Harvard’s administration has said it does not necessarily endorse the views of their school organizations, the club’s official launch marks another step in ongoing discussion about sexual culture on college campuses.
Inflammatory invitations for an allegedly new final club at Harvard, “The Pigeon,” were slipped under students’ doors last week and have elicited heated response from Harvard’s administrators and students alike.
The controversial flyers illustrated the alleged final club’s three principles, each with its own asterisk. The first principle, “Inclusion,” was followed by the footnote, “Jews need not apply.” The second principle, “Diversity,” came before the next footnote, which said, “Seriously, no f-cking Jews. Coloreds OK.” The third principle, “Love,” pointed readers to the term “Rophynol,” a misspelled version of rohypnol, the date rape drug otherwise known as “roofies.” The invitations also required “semi-bro attire.”
“I find these flyers offensive,” Dean of Harvard College Evelynn M. Hammonds said Friday to The Crimson. “Even if intended as satirical in nature, they are hurtful and offensive to many students, faculty and staff.”
Though some have said the so-called invitations represent an ironic jab at the exclusive, all-male atmosphere of Harvard’s final clubs, their anti-Semitic nature and reference to roofies have sparked an outcry among Harvard community members. It is still unclear who created the invitations, and the president of The Harvard Lampoon, an undergraduate humor publication, has denied involvement with the invitations.
Harvard has received 4,856 early applications this year, marking a nearly 15 percent increase from last year’s figure.
This round of applications is only the second year that the school reinstated its early action program after eliminating it in 2007. The admissions office sent offers of acceptance to 18 percent of the 4,228 students who applied early action last year, compared to 3.8 percent in the regular decision pool.
Yale received a total of 4,514 early applications this year, up 4.4 percent from last year’s count of 4,323. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel said he expects to admit somewhere between 650 and 750 applicants in the early action round.
Along with Yale and many other universities nationwide, Harvard extended its Nov. 1 early application deadline this year in the wake of power outages and other delays on the East Coast caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Early applications rose at the majority of the Ivies this year — six schools have reported increases in their counts, and Dartmouth is the only school that experienced a decrease. At this time, Cornell has not yet released its figures.
Harvard applicants will be notified of their decisions by Dec. 13.
Harvard was a 33-point favorite over the Elis coming into the 129th playing of The Game. In rivalries like these, however, Yale proved that predictions mean nothing.
Yale (2–8, 1–6 Ivy) stuck with Harvard (8–2, 5–2) for 60 minutes but ultimately fell 34–24. The Cantabs extended their recent string of successes over the Bulldogs, winning for the sixth straight year.
Yale battled the Crimson to a 3–3 tie at the halftime break. The defense started the day on a high note when linebacker Dylan Drake ’13 sacked Crimson quarterback Colton Chapple on the second play from scrimmage.
Although Yale was forced to punt on its first ensuing drive, the Eli defensive front was again able to break through Harvard’s protection on the next drive. Linebacker Will McHale ’13 downed Chapple 11 yards behind the line of scrimmage.
The Crimson managed just two first downs in the opening quarter, but a strong showing by its defense limited the Bulldogs to just three first downs. Quarterback Derek Russell ’13 was under center for the first time since playing against Penn a month ago.
Yale struck first with 00:21 left in the first quarter. Kicker Philippe Panico ’13 gave Yale a 3–0 lead with a 29-yard field goal.
Kicker David Mothander responded on Harvard’s next drive, splitting the uprights from 23 yards to knot the game up at three. Neither team was able to score for the rest of the half, thanks in part to penalties on Harvard’s offensive line. Three false starts were called on Harvard in the first two quarters. The Crimson racked up a total of seven penalties for 55 yards before the break.
The third quarter saw the scoring pick up, starting with 37-yard field goal by Mothander to put Harvard up 6–3 with 8:53 remaining in the third. After the Cantabs forced a Yale punt, Chapple drove Harvard 63 yards on seven plays for the game’s first touchdown. Passing for 28 yards on the drive, Chapple took it himself with an 18-yard scoring run at the 4:51 mark in the third quarter.
Although Russell completed all seven of his passes in the first half, Yale’s offense was unable to stretch the field. That changed when Reno put Henry Furman ’14 back at quarterback. Furman immediately showed off his arm, finding a diving wide receiver Cam Sandquist ’14 over the middle for 46 yards on his first drive.
Running back Tyler Varga ’15 then took over as Yale’s signal caller and found the end zone two plays later when he froze Harvard’s defense with a pump fake, then ran in to cut the lead to 13–10.
A three-and-out by Harvard left Yale with the ball on its own 29-yard line. The Elis then opened up the final quarter of play with a 12-yard touchdown strike from Furman to wide receiver Grant Wallace ’15. Furman was flushed from the pocket, but he threw on the run and Wallace came to meet the ball for the score and a 17–13 Yale lead.
Harvard took the lead right back in just 1:35 when Chapple finished a 5-play, 64-yard drive with a 32-yard pass to wide receiver Andrew Berg.
Yale was unable to get a first down and punted, but nose guard Nick Daffin ’13 intercepted Chapple on Harvard’s 33. Yale battled its way down the field to set up third and goal on Harvard’s 2-yard line, then Varga rushed up the gut for a touchdown. Yale took a 24–20 lead with 7:07 to go, but the Cantabs were not done.
Chapple broke free on a 61-yard dash, but defensive back Collin Bibb ’13 tripped him up at the Yale 9 to prevent a touchdown. Yale appeared to have kept Harvard out of the end zone when linebacker Ryan Falbo ’13 knocked down a pass on fourth and eight, but he was flagged for defensive holding and Harvard was awarded a new first down at Yale’s 4.
The Elis paid for the penalty two plays later when Chapple hit tight end Cameron Brate in the back of the end zone to put Harvard up 27–24 at the 4:44 mark.
After Furman’s pass was tipped on second down, Sandquist was dragged down for no gain on third down and the Elis punted on fourth and four from deep within their own territory.
Harvard’s drive started off with false start to back the Crimson up, but running back Treavor Scales was able to pick up two first downs, the second going for 63 yards and a touchdown. Scales’ run iced the game by putting up 34–24 with just 1:08 left.
Yale’s attempt at a comeback ended when the ball landed in Crimson defensive back Reynaldo Kirton’s hands for an interception.
Varga led the Elis with 96 rushing yards and two touchdowns and Furman went 13–20 passing for 158 yards, one touchdown and an interception.
As Yalies prepare to take Harvard by storm for The Game this weekend, they may need to leave their beer pong plans behind.
After a Nov. 6 meeting, Harvard faculty and administrators voted nearly unanimously to put into effect a new alcohol policy that aims to establish more explicit guidelines for students’ private parties and dorm events. Though the new policy relaxes alcohol policies for House formals, they ban high-risk competitive drinking games. Harvard’s ban on hard alcohol and kegs at tailgates remain in place and will be enforced at The Game.
For Harvard students, though, certain parts of the new policy remain frustratingly ambiguous, prompting questions on whether beer pong counts as an activity that “promote[s] high-risk drinking, such as excessive and/or rapid consumption of alcohol, particularly of a competitive nature.”
Yalies who are at least 21 years old will need to show identification and get a wristband in order to consume alcohol. Students cannot bring their own alcohol to the tailgate.
For a full list of Harvard’s “Rules of the Game,” click here.
To read the new alcohol policy in its entirety, click here.
Many complain about the cost of college today, but there are few who can rival the costs that face Hong Kong couple Gerald and Lily Chow.
The couple had funneled over $2 million to U.S.-based college admissions consultant Mark Zimny after he promised to use his connections and advice to get the Chows’ two sons into Harvard University. But when their sons did not receive admission letters, the Chows decided to take their issues to court and are charging Zimny for fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
The Chows allegedly met Zimny during one of their sons’ graduation ceremonies, when Zimny told the Chows that he was a Harvard professor who owned a college counsulting firm “IvyAdmit” that would guarantee both sons’ acceptances at the university. Zimny affirmed that he would “grease the admissions wheels,” according to the Boston Globe.
While some people may deliberate the morals of a man who counsels high school students on getting accepted to a college where he teaches, the Chows were bold enough to enthusiastically accept Zimny’s offer.
The Chows initially wired at least $8,000 a month to Zimny’s company as IvyAdmit tutored, mentored and allegedly wrote papers for the two boys while they attended New England preparatory schools.
In one case, Zimny told the Chows that American universities and elite boarding schools treated Asian donors as “outsiders” and were more suspicious of them, the Globe reported. He said the family should build relationships with elite universities through intermediaries that held preexisting relationships.
But $2 million later, the Chows’ sons are still not Harvard-bound. And, in an act of what some would call incredulous chutzpah, IvyAdmit’s website continues to remain operational. Zimny still responds to company emails, including one that the Globe reporter had sent while investigating the story.
Had the Chows ever Google searched ‘Mark Zimny,’ they might have realized that Zimny had left Harvard two years before the two forces first met.
Harvard University’s endowment fell to $30.7 billion in the latest fiscal year after experiencing a 0.05 percent loss in investments.
The slight decline of the largest endowment in higher education is a substantial reversal from fiscal year 2011, when the school reported a 21.4 percent return on investments. Equities in emerging markets were hit particularly hard in the fiscal year that ended June 30, suffering a 17.43 percent decline, according to Reuters.
“The markets during the last year continued to be choppy and highly sensitive to unresolved macroeconomic headwinds,” Jane Mendillo, president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, said in a Wednesday statement.
Harvard is not the first Ivy League school to post a significantly weaker endowment return for fiscal year 2012. Last week, the University of Pennsylvania reported a 1.6 return on investments, and Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman said in a Sep. 13 interview with Bloomberg she expects the school to post a return of zero to 5 percent.
It looks like students might not be the only ones cheating at Harvard lately: former Harvard psychology professor Marc Hauser is guilty of six cases of data fabrication or manipulation in work supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, according to a report by the federal Office of Research Integrity, the Boston Globe reported this week.
The report found skewed data in some of Hauser’s language and cognition studies involving monkeys. One of Hauser’s papers has been retracted and two have been revised, while the rest of the fabrications were found in unpublished writings.
Hauser resigned from Harvard in 2011, after the University closed a three-year investigation into Hauser’s suspected research misconduct. Harvard investigators had found him “solely responsible” for eight cases of research misconduct and sent their findings to the Department of Health and Human Services, which launched a federal investigation.
Hauser “neither admits nor denies committing research misconduct,” according to the report.
“Although I have fundamental differences with some of the findings, I acknowledge that I made mistakes,” Hauser said in a statement. “I let important details get away from my control, and as head of the lab, I take responsibility for all errors made within the lab, whether or not I was directly involved.”
Harvard’s Administrative Board is investigating 125 undergraduates for cheating on a take-home final exam.
In what Boston.com calls “the largest cheating scandal in recent memory to hit the Ivy League,” nearly half of the students in the lecture “Government 1310: Introduction to Congress” are accused of collaborating by email or other methods on short-answer questions and an essay for the final exam. The final was open-book and open-note but not intended to be discussed with others.
After a teaching fellow grading the final in May noticed similarities between several students’ exams, the Ad Board spent the summer reviewing each exam (there were nearly 300) and interviewing certain students. Students whose tests seemed unusually similar to each other’s have now been contacted, and they will go before the Ad Board individually in the next couple of weeks. Students found guilty of academic dishonesty could face a yearlong suspension.
Jay Harris, Dean of Undergraduate Education at Harvard, told the Harvard Crimson that the number of students involved in cheating was “unprecedented in anyone’s living memory,” and that the college decided to announce the investigation to start a larger conversation about academic integrity measures. According to Boston.com, the college will consider preventive measures, such as an academic honor code.
