23 - Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III announces he will step down in the spring following a 28-year tenure. Lewis decides to leave the post unfilled, redistributing Epps' duties among three associate deans. Epps stays on, continuing to work for the College as a senior associate dean.

December 1998
2 - Buffeted by a bull market and a strong economy, Harvard announces that it will add $95 million of endowment money to its operating budget for 1999. With the increase, the endowment payout moves closer to its traditional $.5 percent, up from a historic low of 3.3 percent in 1998.

14 - Former Harvard Republican Club President Noah Z. Seton '00 and campus progressive Kamil E. Redmond '00 forge a political partnership to win the Undergraduate Council's leadership. Seton and Redmond vow to focus on student services during their year-long term.

The Seton-Redmond ticket narrowly defeats the "healthy Harvard" platform of T. Christopher King '01, a candidate who grabbed national headlines by arguing that religious discrimination played a role in his defeat.

1999

January 1999
20 - The A.D. club announces a closed-door policy for all non-members. The club's graduate board cites a return to tradition as the motive behind the change but also acknowledges concern over legal liability. In the next few months, the Delphic, Owl, Phoenix and Spee clubs institute similar policies.

February 1999
17 - The University announces that it will spend $4 million to restore Memorial Hall's signature tower, destroyed by fire in 1956. The decision draws criticism from student group leaders calling for the construction of a full-fledged student center.

March 1999
9 - In a "Rally for Justice," about 350 students protest outside University Hall as Faculty Faculty vote to dismiss D. Drew Doulas, Class of 2000, who pled guilty in the fall to charges of indecent assault and battery. Organized by the Coalition Against Sexual Violence, the Living Wage Campaign and Students Against Sweatshops, the rally also called for a stronger University stance against sweatshop labor, alleging that some apparel manufactured with the Harvard name was produced by companies using sweatshops and for a minimum living wage for Harvard employees.

Earlier in the week, the University publicly endorses "full disclosure" of the locations of factories where Harvard apparel is made, partially assuaging the demands of the Progressive Student Labor Movement.