Campus & Community

On Sept. 25 the Faculty Council nominated a Parliamentarian for the 2013-14 academic year and heard a presentation on post-retirement health benefits and tax-deferred accounts.  They also previewed the dean’s…

Jazz musician and composer Vijay Iyer, who won a MacArthur Foundation grant, in January will become the first Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts in Harvard’s Department of Music.

Sarah Thomas, the new vice president of the Harvard Library, will now also oversee the libraries of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The appointment signals a move toward a more unified and coordinated library system.

This month, the Harvard Allston Education Portal has been offering dance lessons from Marco Perez-Moreno, a Harvard alumnus and professional ballroom dancer.

Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted an 11.3 percent return and was valued at $32.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.

Supporting the development of a robust campus, one that enhances Harvard’s mission of innovative teaching and learning, while simultaneously fostering connections across the University and the broader community will be an important goal of The Harvard Campaign.

Almost 700 Harvard-affiliated athletes sponsored by Harvard Public Affairs & Communications and the Harvard Business School were among the 1,800 runners in the annual Brian J. Honan 5K Road Race on Sunday. The race benefits the Brian J. Honan Charitable Fund.

Harvard University kicked off the public phase of a $6.5 billion fundraising campaign today, designed to benefit key priorities during constrained financial times. If successful, it would be the largest ever in higher education.

Malala Yousafzai, the 16 year-old Pakistani girl who was shot on Oct. 9, 2012, in an assassination attempt for expressing her philosophy of gender equality in education and who famously said, “I want every girl, every child, to be educated,” will receive the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award.

Harvard University announced Sept. 18 that it will award the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to six leaders across government, the arts, and athletics during a ceremony on Oct. 2. The ceremony will also mark the launch of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Harvard College interim Dean Donald Pfister and Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde made themselves available to field questions from students in a “meet the deans” forum.

Harvard University Provost Alan Garber announced the appointment of historian and humanities scholar Peter K. Bol as vice provost for advances in learning.

A major effort under way at Harvard School of Public Health to redesign its educational strategy has received significant new support of $12.5 million from the Charina Endowment Fund and Richard L. (M.B.A.’59) and Ronay Menschel.

The start of a new semester signals many things, one of which is “shopping week,” where undergraduates sit in on classes and check out syllabi before committing to a course.

On Sept. 11, the Faculty Council welcomed new members, reviewed history and policies, elected subcommittees for 2013-14, discussed the work of the council in the new academic year, and discussed proposed changes to the Q Guide.

For several Fridays, dozens of local artists, crafters, and designers from Boston’s SoWa Open Market will be selling their wares at the Science Center Plaza.

Harvard simultaneously faces stiff economic challenges and evolving opportunities, President Drew Faust said in her opening-of-year speech.

Houghton Library, Harvard’s home to literary and historical treasures, is more like a museum than your typical library.

Philip Harding, who is an M.P.P. student at Harvard Kennedy School and president of the Harvard Graduate Council, shares his thoughts on the “Harvard experience.”

After 15 months of construction, the renewal of Old Quincy — the neo-Georgian portion of Quincy House — was completed Saturday when it was renamed Stone Hall in honor of Robert G. Stone Jr. ’45, the late senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Freshmen this year come from very close to Harvard Yard and from very far away.

Coordinated through the Freshman Dean’s Office, the “Reflecting on Your Life” initiative, which invites freshmen to think about meaning and purpose, has received a grant from the Teagle Foundation to broaden the scope of the program.

PBHA summer campers rise through the ranks to take leadership positions and start to give back to their communities.

Jonathan Womack, a media technician at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, took home the grand prize at the Hollywood Book Festival for his sci-fi novel “A Cry for a Hero.”

Theodore C. Bestor, the Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology and director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, has received the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Award for the Promotion of Japanese Culture from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan.

Harvard President Drew Faust opened the first day of fall classes Tuesday by welcoming students and faculty to a new academic year during the traditional Morning Prayers.

As the Class of 2017 settled in at Harvard and began Freshman Week, students from around the world were busy taking in the unfamiliar sights and sounds of their tightly packed, red-brick neighborhood, their home base for the next four years.

At the annual Freshman Convocation Monday, Harvard President Drew Faust and other University officials told the Class of ’17 to embrace challenges, reach out to fellow students and others, and keep open minds about what the future should hold.

The Harvard University Police Department has released its annual report on crime, prevention, substance abuse, and other on-campus services.

Harvard Divinity School’s annual convocation included an address by Houghton Professor of the Practice of Ministry Studies Stephanie Paulsell, who explored the theme of devotion in the texts of the Bible’s “Song of Songs,” and in the work of author Virginia Woolf.