West announces he will leave Harvard for Princeton at the end of the academic year. West’s decision to leave ends months of speculation about his future at Harvard, after his highly publicized disagreement with Summers.

Cabot, Currier, Dunster, Kirkland and Lowell Houses all announce the appointment of new Allston Burr senior tutors.

MAY

Thirty-nine Harvard professors join a Harvard-MIT petition that calls for the University to divest from investment in Israel until it ends its occupation of Palestinian territories and stops human rights abuses.

Geisinger Professor of History William C. Kirby is appointed the next dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He replaces the outgoing Knowles.

Renowned evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould dies of cancer at his home in New York at age 60, a few days before a final exam for one of his classes.

Following a yearlong controversy about grade inflation, professors unanimously adopt a new 4.0 grading scale and restrict the proportion of honors awarded each year to 60 percent. The Class of 2005 will be the first to feel the effects of these changes.

Commencement speaker Zayed M. Yasin ’02 is embroiled in controversy after The Crimson reports he would speak about the concept of “jihad,” as applied to graduating seniors’ lives. A week later, Yasin agrees to drop the word jihad from the speech’s title, although it remains in the subtitle, and agrees to add a sentence condemning violence in the name of jihad, which includes a denunciation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

SUMMER

The Council of Ivy Group Presidents votes to decrease the number of football recruits per class at Ivy institutions, beginning with the Class of 2007. 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.

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 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.

SEPTEMBER

Over 10,000 people gather at noon in Tercentenary Theatre to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. President Lawrence H. Summers and religious leaders from several denominations speak at the event.

Gomes and Pomey, the two students accused of embezzling over $100,000 from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, plead guilty to charges. The two students are later sentenced to five years of probation and dismissed from the College.