Campus & Community

Harvard officials started getting ready for Hurricane Sandy’s roundhouse punch last week, and by Monday they were supplied, staffed, watching, and responding.

Legendary Harvard rowing coach Harry L. Parker and his daughter, Abigail, were lucky to share some bonding time during the 48th Annual Head of the Charles Regatta on Oct. 20.

At its fourth meeting of the year on Oct. 24, the Faculty Council continued its discussion of proposed updates to the College’s alcohol policy and heard a presentation on House renewal.

Biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross wrote 300 academic papers but always returned to the classroom, teaching until his retirement in 1992. He died on Oct. 17 at age 91. A memorial service will be held Nov. 10 at the Memorial Church.

The Harvard Allston Education Portal celebrated its fifth year of programming and an expansion of its facility and its mission with a community event that featured performances by Harvard students and a lecture by faculty member Michael Sandel.

The Hutchins Family Foundation is giving $30 million to Harvard that will support academic initiatives in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and also launch the Hutchins Family Challenge Fund for House Renewal.

From lovers’ pocketknife engravings to historical markers, the written word makes its mark on Harvard’s campus, whether tucked away in nooks and inconspicuous corners or emblazoned on Harvard’s Houses, gates, and walls.

More than 100 sophomores finalized applications for the Jacob Wendell Scholarship Prize this week. Established in 1899, the prize is awarded without reference to financial need, and the recipient is free to spend the $17,000 award as he or she sees fit.

For nearly five years, Harvard Extension School Dean Michael Shinagel and groups of 9- and 10-year-olds from a suburban Chicago elementary school have been great friends — by way of the U.S. Postal Service — and it’s the envy of the entire school.

Harvard University has submitted a new development agenda for Allston, detailing nine projects slated for development in the next decade. The projects will complement planned activity on the Health and Life Science Center and the residential and retail development envisioned for Barry’s Corner.

Freshman Parents Weekend, Oct. 12-13, offered parents another view of college life and the challenges their children face. “Freshmen feel like they really change during these first few months at college,” said Anya Bernstein Bassett, director of undergraduate studies.

The Harvard men’s and Radcliffe women’s rowing crews will be out in full force during this year’s Head of the Charles Regatta, taking place Oct. 20-21 along the Charles River. A video interview with Harry Parker, the Thomas Bolles Head Coach for Harvard Men’s Crew, explores the love of the sport.

A Q-and-A with Harvard officials Marilyn Hausammann and Bill Murphy on the status of contract negotiations with the University’s largest union.

More than 1,000 Cambridge and Allston-Brighton residents turned out for the 23rd Community Football Day.

Ernesto Cortés Jr. received the Robert Coles “Call of Service” Award for his efforts to empower people to improve their lives and circumstances.

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on October, 2, 2012, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Robert Vivian Pound, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Professor Pound was one of the historic figures of twentieth-century physics, playing a central role in several discoveries that have had immense consequences for science and our everyday lives.

Harry L. Parker, the Thomas Bolles Head Coach for Harvard Men’s Crew, is widely regarded as the premier rowing coach in the United States. In this video, he discusses the sport of rowing.

Alvin E. Roth, an economist whose research as a member of Harvard Business School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences improved the design and functioning of markets, has won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. He shares the prize with Lloyd S. Shapley, A.B. ’44, of the University of California, Los Angeles.

A family that sent four daughters through Harvard Business School — including former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao — visited the School on Friday to announce a $40 million gift that will fund scholarships for students of Chinese heritage and support the building of the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center for executive education.

Eric Jacobsen, the Sheldon Emery Professor of Chemistry, and Jenny Hoffman, an associate professor of physics, have been named recipients of the 2012 Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching at Harvard.

As Harvard’s neighbor Boston College celebrates its 150th year, it’s important to reflect on the enduring tension between scholarship for social good and inquiry for its own sake, President Drew Faust said Oct. 10 as she received the college’s first Sesquicentennial Medal.

Lamont Library will remain open 24/7 during reading period and final exams this academic year, Harvard College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds and interim librarian of Harvard College Susan Fliss announced today.

The Faculty Council met on Oct. 10 and discussed a variety of College matters.

Nabbing its 13th straight victory by crushing Cornell on Oct. 6, the Crimson football team is 4-0 on the season, and has won all its games by double digits.

President Drew Faust today launched the second year of the President’s Challenge, inviting Harvard students and postdoctoral candidates to create entrepreneurial solutions to pressing societal problems and introducing a new category, the arts.

For the second consecutive year, Harvard’s landscaping staff brought trees, shrubs, boxes of bulbs, and a new bench to Harvard Yard. With their help, students, proctors, and administrators transformed the space into a more inviting setting.

Harvard has early connections to both winners of the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics.

Renowned international public health scientist and medical statistician Hans Rosling will be awarded the Harvard Foundation’s Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at Winthrop House on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.

At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on October, 2, 2012, the Minute honoring the life and service of the late Juan Marichal, Smith Professor of French and Spanish Languages and Literatures, Emeritus, was placed upon the records. Professor Marichal was committed to Harvard’s international outreach and helped foster its intellectual ties with the Iberian and Latin American worlds.

A Q-and-A with Lizabeth Cohen, new dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.