University MagicA nation at war, an unsettled economy,a lengthy presidential campaign: inevitably,Harvard’s 357th Commencement touchedon some of these concerns. On Wednesday,June 4, President Drew Faust’s remarks atthe Reserve O∞cers’ Training Corps com-

missioning ceremony necessarily addressedmatters military—as did the graduate Eng-lish address by Iraq veteran Anthony C.Woods at the morning exercises next day(see pages 53-54). Wednesday afternoon,principal Class Day speaker, Ben S. Bernan-ke ’75, chairman of the Board of Governorsof the Federal Reserve System, honored

Harvard Magazine 47

From the top: Suitablypropped are (from right)Joseph Foster Robbins’36 and his wife, Jayne, ofWenham, Massachusetts;Thomas Allen ’36 and hiswife, Judy Welke, of New-tonville, Massachusetts;Jeremy Gilmore; and thebroom-brigade organiz-er, Gerald Gilmore ’36, ofSouth Orleans, Massachu-setts. Masters of theologi-cal studies QuardricosBernard Driskell,of Atlan-ta,and Elizabeth Siwo-Okundi, a native of Kenyanow living in Boston.Ana Vollmar ’08, of theveggie-loving DudleyHouse Co-op and Ham-den, Connecticut. Presi-dent Faust addresses thealumni gathering.

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57 A Giant’s Gift59 Harvard Portrait60 English Evolves—and Reverts61 On the University’s Agenda62 University People63 Running Radcliffe64 Public Health Horizons65 Endowments—Under a Tax?66 What Makes (and Remakes) a House

67 Yesterday’s News68 A “Pause” and Progress in FAS69 A Dominant Dean70 A Communal Campus?71 Brevia73 The Undergraduate75 Sports76 Alumni80 The College Pump

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JOHN HARVARD’S

JOURNAL

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his audience with a serious analysis ofcontemporary infla-tion, productivity,and monetary pol-icy, even as HarvardKennedy School’sgraduation speaker,Ellen Johnson Sir-leaf, M.P.A. ’71, a pio-neering president ofLiberia, noted an-other momentousevent: “Who wouldhave thought that aminority, albeit aHarvard graduate,

would change forever the American politi-cal landscape?” Barack Obama, J.D. ’91, hadclinched his party’s presidential nomina-tion the night before.

But Commencement at heart is a cele-bration of Harvard and a festive rite of pas-sage for the students (of diverse ages anddisciplines) who have entered to grow inwisdom. So it was this year as well.

Now 372 years old, the Universityshowed its knack for newness in a fistful offirsts. The conferral of degrees began whenMichael D. Smith, in his first Commence-ment as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sci-ences, addressed “Madam President, Fel-lows of Harvard College, Madam Presidentand Members of the Board of Overseers.”The first degrees actually conferred byFaust as “Madam President” were to candi-dates from the School of Engineering andApplied Sciences—the University’s newestschool, elevated fromdivisional status justlast autumn. (Present-ing dean Venkatesh

Narayanamurti’s first appearance in therole was also his last; he steps down in Sep-tember.) Other newcomers included thedeans of the Graduate School of Arts andSciences, Harvard Medical School, theGraduate School of Design, and—in herfirst week in o∞ce—Harvard College (Eve-lynn M. Hammonds, the first woman andAfrican American to hold the post).

Hinting at things to come, Faust invokedthe power of ritual twice during the morn-ing ceremony. She had to admonish thecheering Ph.D. and Kennedy School candi-dates to wait for their moment, saying tothe former, “I’m not done!” and telling thelatter, “I have to say the words!” Conferralsof degrees, like magic spells, must be done

strictly to form.Otherwise, the events

proceeded like a finelytuned clock, despite ex-

Three women and seven men received honorarydegrees at Commencement. Provost Steven E.Hyman introduced the honorands, and PresidentDrew Faust read the citations, in the order below.At a dinner the evening before, Faust noted thatan honorary degree had also been voted to formerFaculty of Arts and Sciences dean Jeremy R.Knowles, who died on April 3 (see page 69); shewas able to tell him last winter that he had beenso recognized. Faust called for a moment of si-lence and thanksgiving in his memory at the be-ginning of the morning exercises. She also an-

nounced on both occasionsthat the University hadvoted to award a degree toEdward M. Kennedy ’54,who had intended to at-tend the dinner and themorning exercises butcould not after undergoingsurger y on June 2 for a malignant brain tumor;the degree is to be awardedat a later date. Faust citedKennedy’s 45 years of “able,energetic, and influential”service in the U.S. Senate,particularly his advocacyfor education and highereducation.

Eric R. Kandel ’52. A University Professorat Columbia, he is a pioneering neurobiol-ogist who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize forPhysiology or Medicine. Doctor of Science:In the synapses of sea slugs and the hippocampi ofmice and men, he fathoms the mechanisms ofmemory and illumines the biology of mind.

Gerda Lerner. The University of Wiscon-sin’s Robinson-Edwards professor of his-tory emerita, she is considered the founderof women’s history, and established thefirst graduate program in the field, atSarah Lawrence. Doctor of Letters: Fusing

life and thought, resilienceand brilliance, she has un-veiled the deeds of ordi-nary yet extraordinarywomen, fore ver alteringthe future of the past.

James P. Comer. TheFalk professor of childpsychiatry at the YaleSchool of Medicine, hecreated the School De-velopment Program,which applies princi-ples of child develop-ment to advance stu-dents’ learning andhealthy growth in for-

merly troubled schools. Doctor of Laws:Eminent expert on child development, he enlistsfamily and community to enhance the culture ofeducation, reshaping schools as new havens oflearning.

Wen C. Fong. Sanford professor of art his-tory emeritus at Princeton, he helped es-tablish the nation’s first doctoral programin Chinese art and architecture; its gradu-ates hold leading teaching and curatorialpositions worldwide. Doctor of Arts: Open-ing the eyes of the West to the art of the East, inthe painter’s hand he sees the heart’s desire, and inthe beauty of brushstrokes the breath of life.

Honoris Causa

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The HonorableDamon J. Keith

Wen C. Fong

J.K. Rowling

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traordinary recognition for two individualsand the awarding of fully 10 honorary de-grees (see below). The celebratory peal thatregularly booms from the Memorial Churchbelfry at the end of the morning ceremonieswas absent; it’s timed for 11:45 a.m., whenthe exercises have previously ended. Thisyear, relieving the damp and chilly throng,they ended 15 minutes early.

In her institutional role, Faustclosed the academic year by reprising atheme from her installation address last Oc-tober (see “Twenty-eighth, and First,” No-vember-December 2007, page 54). Then, she

said, “The essence of a university is that it isuniquely accountable to the past and to thefuture—not simply, or even primarily, to thepresent.” This Commencement afternoon,she addressed head-on what she called Har-vard’s “public boundary” and, in particular,“questions about the role and purposes ofuniversities”—as exemplified by congres-sional queries about academic finances andendowments; lessened federal funding forresearch; and heightened discussion aboutthe costs of and access to higher education.

Endowments, Faust said, “represent a

concrete embodiment of our accountabilityto the past and to the future. They derivefrom our history and the dreams of thosewho have preceded us; they are in turn thevehicle that enables us to project our owndreams into the future.

“The endowments at Harvard and othergreat universities,” she continued, “have cre-

Harvard Magazine 49P h o t o g r a p h s b y S t u R o s n e r

Exulting are Graduate School of Arts and Sciences class marshals, Dudley House Fellows,and new Ph.D.s Ernesto Martinez of El Centro,California (anthropology), Priscilla Song ofSolon, Ohio (anthropology), and Zeba Wun-derlich of Princeton, New Jersey (biophysics).

John McCarthy. Professor of computerscience at Stanford, he has studiedartificial intelligence since 1948, and coinedthe term itself in 1955. He was awarded theNational Medal of Science in 1990. Doctorof Science: A cardinal scholar of computer sci-ence, whose forays logical andalgorithmic ser ve as sourcecode in the quest to make ma-chines think.

Janet D. Rowley. TheBlum-Riese DistinguishedService Professor at theUniversity of Chicago, in1972 she discovered thecausal relationship be-tween genetic transloca-tions and cancer. She re-ceived the National Medalof Science in 1999. Doctor of Science: Sagecytogeneticist of the Second City, whose trans-formative work on chromosomal translocationmarks a triumph in translational medicine.

The Honorable Damon J. Keith. U.S.Court of Appeals Judge for the Sixth Cir-cuit since 1977, now on senior status, hehas written important decisions on em-ployment discrimination, school desegre-gation, and civil rights, including the rul-ing in United States v. Sinclair, whichprohibited warantless wiretapping. Doc-

tor of Laws: Avatar of independence, championof equal justice under law, a just and humane ju-rist who has shared and shaped the action andpassion of his time.

Daniel C. Tosteson ’46, M.D. ’48. TheWalker DistinguishedProfessor of cell biologyserved as dean of HarvardMedical School from 1977to 1997, transforming thecurriculum and advanc-ing fundamental re-search. Doctor of Science:Dean of his era’s deans ofmedicine, a pathfinding edu-cator and generative force inresearch fervently focused oneasing the burden of humandisease.

His Highness the Aga Khan ’58, G ’61. Inhis junior year, he became the forty-ninthhereditary imam of the Ismaili Muslims.The Aga KhanDevelopmentNetwork hasimproved liv-ing conditionsand fosteredpluralism anddemocracy indeveloping na-

tions, building bridges between the Islamicworld and the West. Doctor of Laws: Imamof the Ismaili Muslims, visionary exponent of edu-cation and development, whose abundant goodworks and eloquent words create hope for under-standing across ancient divides.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling. She is knownto and beloved by hundreds of millions ofchildren of all ages, thanks to her sevenHarry Potter books, now translated into 65languages. Doctor of Letters: A wizard withwords whose spellbinding tales enchant millions ofMuggles with a love for the magic of reading.

Janet D. Rowley

James P. Comer

His Highness the Aga Khan

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50 July - August 2008

ated a system of higher education that is theenvy of the world. It has opened doors of op-portunity ever more broadly; it has generatedpowerful new understandings about humannature and the world we inhabit; it has fu-eled revolutionary advances in science; it hashelped drive economic growth and expan-sion in our nation and the world.” Werethose resources diminished, she said, “wewould have to do less—less research, lessteaching, at a lesser level of quality—or wewould have to generate more income fromother sources—tuition increasesor external funding.” Now, when“knowledge is increasingly impor-tant, our accountability to the fu-ture challenges us to do not less,but ever more….” (The speech ap-pears at www.harvardmag.com/-commencement; for more on theseissues, see page 65.)

Faust had ad-libbed that shewas “the warm-up act,” referringto her successor at the lectern,J.K. Rowling. And indeed, theHarry Potter author cast her spellover Harvard—although perhapsnot as her fans expected.

The University had preparedfor her arrival. The Wednesdaybanquet for honorands in Annen-berg Hall usually features dozensof small tables; this time, guests dined inlong rows—a bow to Hogwarts. When itcame time for her to speak on behalf of theother honorary-degree recipients, Rowlingsaid, “I never dreamed that Harvard wouldfeel so familiar.” She said that Harry Potter’smagic broom had carried her around theworld to unexpected places, but that thishonor was “the greatest and most intimi-dating”—a disarming admission. (Askedthe next morning about the unfolding grad-uation scene, Rowling replied, “It’s a littlebetter organized than Hogwarts, I’d say.”)

Much of the week’s best rhetoric focusedon a potentially hackneyed subject: whatsort of people the privileged new graduateswould become. Faust had fresh things tosay in her Baccalaureate talk on Tuesday af-ternoon, and Bernanke ended his academictext on a personal note, addressing thesame concerns (see pages 54-55).

But Rowling, to whom both unimagin-able wealth and celebrity had come unex-

pectedly, seemed to model thematter even more directly. At thechief marshal’s Commencementluncheon, she recalled that whenfilmmaker David Heyman ’83(whose firm produces the HarryPotter movies) approached her onHarvard’s behalf to o≠er an hon-orary degree, she asked for a weekto think it over. That she had ac-cepted meant “I was more honoredthan terrified.” Three hours later,

Rowling won over the Tercentenary The-atre crowd, confessing, “I have wracked mymind and heart for what I ought to say toyou today.”

It is Rowling’s gift (see page 55) to drawuniversal life lessons from her own discov-eries—of personal failure “on an epic scale,”and, from a day job at Amnesty Interna-tional, “evidence about the evils humankindwill inflict on their fellow humans, to gainor maintain power.” And yet, “I also learnedmore about human goodness…than I hadever known before.” Of those who “prefernot to exercise their imaginations at all,”who “choose to remain comfortably withinthe bounds of their own experience,”Rowling said, “I do not think they have anyfewer nightmares than I do.…I think thewillfully unimaginative see more monsters.”

Quoting Plutarch, she said, “What weachieve inwardly will change outer reality.”In a final challenge, the 42-year-old Rowl-ing—seeming too young and too slight for

the weight of her words—told the gradu-ates, “If you choose to use your status andinfluence to raise your voice on behalf ofthose who have no voice; if you choose toidentify not only with the powerful, butwith the powerless; if you retain the abilityto imagine yourself into the lives of thosewho do not have your advantages, then itwill not only be your proud families whocelebrate your existence, but thousandsand millions of people whose reality youhave helped transform for the better. Wedo not need magic to change the world, wecarry all the power we need inside our-selves already: we have the power to imag-ine better.”

In honoring Rowling for igniting in mil-lions the passion to read, Harvard discov-ered that it had also welcomed a teacherbeyond compare.

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Celebrants (from top right): Theresa Cheng of MyrtleBeach, South Carolina, and Matthew “Hezzy” Smith ofMountainside, New Jersey, both of Quincy House; MalihehParyavi of Shiraz, Iran, who earned an M.P.A. in interna-tional development from the Kennedy School; and M.B.A.candidates Reagan Grabner (left), of Bickleton, Washing-ton, and Davidson Severn, of Yakima,Washington.

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