In a striking break with tradition, heavy rain soaks graduates and their families during Commencement exercises on June 6.

Geisinger Professor of History William C. Kirby assumed the post of dean of the Faculty on July 1, pledging comprehensive curricular reform with special attention to study abroad, international studies and science.

In his first major decision as dean, Kirby placed the Study Abroad Office under the jurisdiction of the dean of undergraduate education in August.

This move is intended to ease students’ efforts to make sure going abroad fits in with their academic plans.

Moving the Study Abroad Office was one of several recommendations for study abroad reform made in a March report co-authored by Kirby and William L. Fash, who is the chair of the Faculty Standing Committee on Study Out of Residence.

Only about 10 percent of Harvard undergraduates go abroad, a figure Kirby and others in the University hope to see increase.

“Our hope, simply put, was to reduce the perceived hindrances for students who wished to study abroad, and, in time, to make international study an important part of a Harvard education for a larger number of students,” Kirby wrote in an e-mail.

Crimson Key Loses Tour Privileges

The Office of Admissions and Financial Aid decided in August to assume full control over prospective student tours, displacing the Crimson Key Society as the exclusive admissions tour provider.

Byerly Hall will also begin to pay students who guide tours or greet guests at information sessions.

Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis ’70-’73 said the changes, which were “on [her] mind for a number of years,” are being implemented in order to diversify the tour guide staff, to create greater accountability and coordination and to provide more job opportunities to students looking for work.

“We want to make sure we broaden the eligibility of becoming a tour guide for those who don’t make it a major extracurricular commitment,” she said. “We want to make sure a range of people get to conduct tours.”

In addition to diversifying the roster of tour guides, McGrath Lewis said that taking over guide selection will strengthen the admissions office’s coordination of tours. Feedback from visitors to Byerly Hall had indicated that tours were sometimes seen as redundant following information session presentations.

The planned adjustments to admissions tours have not sat well with Crimson Key leadership, who said they would have liked to play a larger role in formulating the changes.

“We haven’t really had a lot of chances to discuss them,” said Glen R. Curry ’03, president of the Crimson Key Society.

Curry and Crimson Key Vice President Brian J. Hayes ’03 were informed of the new planned changes at a meeting on Aug. 12 with Megan P. Basil ’98, an admissions officer and Byerly Hall’s liaison to the organization.

After the meeting, Curry sent an e-mail to Crimson Key members, calling the proposed changes “drastic,” and saying they were “hatched without our input.”

Cutting Down the Core

One fewer Core Curriculum requirement greet students this fall, and many of them will get to choose which one it is.

Three months after the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted unanimously to roll back the number of required Core courses from eight to seven, the Core office quietly released its plans this summer to determine which concentrations are exempt from which core areas.

The full list of exemptions is posted on the Core curriculum website. Although the website originally gave the impression that the new exemptions apply only to the class of 2006, they in fact apply to all current students.

Students who have already taken a Core course in an area from which they are exempt have little recourse.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 said exceptions would likely be made only for joint concentrators who want to take an exemption from their secondary field.

More choices for students complicates recordkeeping for the registrar.

Students will fill out forms at registration today to choose which exemption they want to take.

The form would provide a non-binding way to help the registrar keep track of which requirements a student still needs to fulfill.

Development Stalls

Five-year-old negotiations between Harvard and Cambridge over the University’s planned government center came to a screeching halt in July.

Harvard representatives said in July that they were willing to scrap what they had often described as the project’s “centerpiece”—a tunnel to connect the two buildings, which is the only piece lacking official permission—in order to leave the negotiations behind and begin construction on the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS).

While Harvard officials say they have looked into what they would need to do to build a tunnel-less CGIS, Harvard officials declined to say that they would be withdrawing the application for the tunnel.

Additionally, Harvard gave up its three-year-old fight to build a modern art museum on the Charles River.

University officials announced at a July 2 meeting of the Cambridge Planning

Board that they are shelving the plan and “shifting focus.”

Harvard officials say they instead hope to use the site, which is currently home to Mahoney’s Garden Center, for graduate student housing—an option that the University introduced, but strongly downplayed, at a meeting with the community last December.

Ivy Presidents Cut Recruits

Beginning with the Class of 2007, the number of football recruits per class at Ivy institutions will be decreased from 35 to 30, the Council of Ivy Group Presidents decided in June.

In addition, all Ivy League sports teams must set aside seven weeks during the academic year during which neither required athletic activities nor coach-supervised voluntary activities occur.

Football teams must also limit the number of institutional football coaches to seven full-time and three part-time starting in the fall of 2003—a reduction from the six full-time and six part-time coaches previously allowed.

Feds Scrutinize Sexual Assault Policy

The U.S. Department of Education began an investigation in August into the College’s new sexual assault discipline procedure, acting on a student’s complaint that the policy violates the Title IX gender discrimination statute.

The new policy, which administrators said will still go into effect this fall, mandates that a victim of a peer dispute produce corroborating evidence before the Administrative Board begins a full investigation.

The complaint, filed June 4, argues that the corroboration requirement would bar sexual assault victims—the vast majority of whom are women—from adequate grievance procedures, violating federal guarantees of gender equality in education.

The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education has decided to proceed with its investigation.

Heather Quay, a University attorney, said that Harvard is cooperating with the probe and is providing documents and records requested by the investigators.

The University’s General Counsel’s office declined further comment.

Aid for Estranged Students

Beginning this fall, students who have become estranged from their parents will have an easier time convincing the financial aid office that their aid packages should be increased, University President Lawrence H. Summers said in early June.

Speaking at the June 6 annual meeting of the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, Summers said that at his instruction the financial aid office was drafting new guidelines for the process under which students who develop irreconcilable conflicts with their parents may petition to be considered financially independent.

Being considered financially independent frees disowned students from the responsibility of making up the portion of their tuition that their parents withhold.

Members of the Harvard bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered community had criticized the current policy that required a student to withdraw from school for two years to prove their independence.

Many believed the policy had unfairly punished students who were disowned for revealing their sexuality.

Honoring Early Decision

After speculation that Harvard would allow students who had been accepted under binding Early Decision programs at other colleges to enroll at Harvard, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid released a statement in late July saying Harvard will honor the Early Decision system.

“It is our expectation that students admitted elsewhere under binding Early Decision will honor their previous commitment and not matriculate at Harvard,” the statement said.

The statement does not make clear, however, how the College would treat students who tried to break binding early commitments and attend Harvard.

McGrath Lewis said that if such a case arose, Harvard would “certainly consider rescinding their admission” and “will not allow the student to enroll.”

The policy does not represent a departure from past practice, as the National Association of College Admissions Counselors voted last fall to allow high school students to apply to both an Early Decision and an Early Action school with the caveat that the Early Decision application “supersedes” all others.

McGrath Lewis said she does not “think there was any support for [the] idea” of permitting students accepted under Early Decision elsewhere to enroll.

Harken Stock Speculation

The company that manages Harvard’s endowment came under scrutiny this summer for its ownership of more than $28 million worth of stock in Harken Energy Corporation in 1990.

The large figure prompted some to speculate that the University is the unknown buyer of President Bush’s shares in the Texas-based oil and gas company, though Harvard Management Company (HMC) officials denied the purchase.

It also came to light that two top Harvard investment managers sat on Harken’s executive board and held personal stakes in the company, creating further questions about Harvard’s involvement with the company.

Bush, who has recently criticized corporate wrongdoing by companies such as WorldCom and Enron, has had to answer questions about his own actions while serving on Harken’s board of directors.

The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonpartisan watchdog group, said that evidence points to Harvard as the likely buyer.

According to a book published by the center, a spreadsheet used by Ralph D. Smith, the Los Angeles broker who handled the sale for Bush, included the phone number of HMC, as well as the name of Michael R. Eisenson, a top investment manager for the University at the time.

Jack Meyer, the current president of HMC, dismissed claims that Harvard obtained Bush’s shares.

“We didn’t buy George Bush’s stock,” said Jack Meyer, who took over as president of HMC about two months after Bush’s sale.

ROTC Course Credit

For the first time in several years, cadets in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program will receive military credit for a Harvard course this fall.

ROTC officials approved credit for Government 1730, “War and Politics,” taught by Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs Stephen P. Rosen ’74.

The change does not represent a change in the position of Harvard’s opposition to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals.

By allowing “War and Politics” to count for ROTC credit as well as Harvard credit, the move will also eliminate a need—during at least one semester—for cadets to take their ROTC requirements as an extra class, said Col. John Kuconis, who commanded the Air Force ROTC detachment at MIT before retiring this summer. Kuconis worked with former cadet Brian R. Smith ’02 to win approval for the course.

“The students have a very hard load,” Kuconis said. “It’s a great deal for the students, and I think it’s a good deal for ROTC.”

Yasin Delivers ‘Jihad’ Speech

After more than a week of controversy about the title and substance of his Senior English Address, Zayed M. Yasin ’02 delivered a speech about personal “jihad” uneventfully at Commencement ceremonies in June.

In his speech, retitled “Of Faith and Citizenship,” from its original title “American Jihad,” Yasin spoke about the perceived contradiction between his Muslim faith and his American citizenship.

“I am one of you, but I am also one of them,” Yasin said. “When I’m told this is a world at war...I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

But he concluded that his belief in Islam and American patriotism were not incompatible.

He also attempted to redefine the meaning of jihad from a violent struggle to a process of personal growth.

He defined the true meaning of jihad as “the determination to do right and justice even against your personal interests” and urged graduates to look at their lives after graduation as this kind of personal jihad.

“Harvard graduates have a responsibility to leave their mark on the world,” Yasin said. “I pray...that we will be the change we seek in this world.”

Yasin said that jihad is a broad struggle for control. “On a global scale, [jihad] is a struggle...for control of the big decisions—not only who controls what piece of land, but more importantly who gets medicine, who can eat.”

A handful of students protested the speech prior to Commencement, handing out hundreds of red, white and blue pins.

Openings and Closings

The Mexican restaurant, Real Taco, will move into Bruegger’s Bagels old location on Mt. Auburn St. this fall, offering cheap food until 2 a.m. on weeknights.

Three years ago, Real Taco owner Joel Espinoza wrote his final paper for a Harvard Extension School economic class about Mexican restaurants in New England, concluding that there is a potentially lucrative market for authentic fare in the region.

Short on cash, Espinoza decided to test his theory—resulting in a Mexican restaurant in downtown Boston and now one in Cambridge.

After closing its doors more than a year ago, Grafton Street Pub and Grille —the upscale bar that had become a favorite for Cambridge locals and the College’s over-21 set—reopened June 21 just down the street from its original location.

The bar moved into the One Bow Street Building that previously housed the legendary Bow & Arrow Pub.

“Things have been going really well [since the opening],” said Grafton owner Patrick M. Lee said. “There are a lot of old faces. We’re getting a lot of positive feedback.”

Harvard Square will also soon to have its own “desserterie.”

That’s how business owners Kim Moore and Paul Conforti describe their sugar-focused restaurant Finale, which is set to open a new branch this fall in the former location of Ma Soba.

The new Dunster Street restaurant will provide Harvard Square diners with a menu consisting of upscale deserts, ranging in price from $7.95 sorbet and ice cream to $30 for the chocolate plate for two.

“The likelihood is that people will have eaten already at another local restaurant,” Moore said in explaining the premise behind the restaurant. “It’s the sort of thing that happens in the North End. People want to extend their evening, or to take a walk before dessert.”

A Scholar’s Bookshop—which specializes in out-of-print books, with an academic emphasis—opened on Eliot Street in June.

Owner Howard Feldstein said he was drawn to opening a store near Harvard because of the academic atmosphere fostered in the University.

Though Feldstein said he has been collecting books since he was five, he said has never been drawn to new books.

“I find new books boring,” he said. “The great scholarship has already been done.”

—Lauren R. Dorgan, Jonathan H. Esensten, David H. Gellis, Anne K. Kofol, Dan Rosenheck and Elisabeth S. Theodore contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Stephanie M. Skier can be reached at skier@fas.harvard.edu.