April

The popular Crimson Sports Grille will have its alcohol license suspended for 18 days for repeatedly violations of serving alcohol to minors. The suspension follows five fines over the past decade for alcohol violations by the Grille, and the bar ultimately closes for good.

Nearly 50 members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) begin a sit-in at Massachusetts Hall to protest Harvard’s lack of a living wage. They want the university to adopt a wage floor of $10.25 an hour. The sit-in garners the attention of the national media and attracts support from prominent labor leaders. Daily protests were held outside Mass. Hall including the largest Yard rally in six years.

May

After 21 days, the sit-in ends with Harvard agreeing to form a new committee to study labor issues at Harvard. This committee will include two undergraduates selected by the Undergraduate Council.

In an effort to increase first-year interaction with faculty members, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will double the number of Freshmen Seminars offered next year. Also the report by the Faculty suggests that a number of structural changes be made to the seminars such as allowing seminars to count for concentration or core credit.

Summer

Summers begins his first day as the 27th Harvard president on July 1.

Robert Scalise is named the new director of athletics.

2001-2001

September

The majority of Harvard’s schools suspend classes and other business on Sept. 11 after the morning’s terrorist attacks, though many remain partially open to provide the community with a gathering place. In the evening, more than 3,000 gather in front of Memorial Church for a University-wide vigil. Harvard follows the lead of most professional and collegiate teams and cancels all of its intercollegiate athletic contests through the weekend.

In a rally organized by the newly formed Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice, about 500 students demonstrate outside Widener Library for a peaceful response to the terrorists attacks.

Harvard announces the value of its endowment slipped in the last fiscal year for the first time in 17 years, from $19.2 billion to $18.3 billion. Harvard Management Company, the organization that invests the endowment, cites the economic downturn and decline of the stock market as causes for the drop.