Rohit Chopra ’04 and Jessica R. Stannard-Friel ’04 are elected president and vice president of the Council, respectively, by a wide margin in the largest election turnout ever.

2003

JANUARY

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences announces that it has no intention of bringing its nondiscrimination policy into compliance with series of post-Sept. 11 legislation known as the USA PATRIOT Act, which restricts certain foreign-born academics from performing research on classified biological and chemical agents.

Summers announces a $14 million increase in graduate student financial aid to students seeking public service careers that traditionally do not pay well.

Harvard officially gives up plans to build a tunnel under Cambridge Street to connect the new Center for Government and International Studies. After months of negotiating, Harvard failed to overcome strong neighborhood opposition to the project.

The Graduate School of Education (GSE) announces that it will give back a $12.5 million gift pledged by Jane Fonda to fund a gender studies center. The GSE cited increasing financial difficulty and a more restrictive University policy on centers as reasons for the refund.

FERBUARY

The Black Students Association removes the list “Top 10 Signs Harvard Has Driven a Black Woman Crazy” from its new The Black Guide to Life at Harvard. Some members decried the list as being offensive to women.

Over 1,250 students sign a petition arguing against the proposed preregistration plan. The signed petitions are then given to Kirby and the Faculty.

Members of the men’s crew team erect a nine-foot tall snow penis in Tercentenary Theatre. Two women destroy the icy phallus shortly after its erection, prompting a heated debate over the right to free speech.

Harvard files a friend of the court brief in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, which will be decided by the Supreme Court at the end of June. The University, along with several other major universities who signed the brief, argues that having a diverse student body is a vital element of higher education.

The College remains open despite the over two feet of snow delivered by the largest blizzard to hit the Northeast in seven years.

MARCH

Nearly 200 students sign a petition urging the creation of an alternative class to Social Analysis 10, or “Ec-10,” the introduction to economics course taught by Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein. Students assert that Ec 10, which is required of all economic concentrators, has a conservative bias. The students support the effort of Barker Professor of Economics Stephen A. Marglin to create an alternative introductory economics class.