5) HARVARD SLOWS CONSTRUCTION IN ALLSTON
Harvard first announced plans in February to slow construction on its much-touted Allston Science Complex due to financial pressures and an unprecedented drop in the endowment. And to top off the University's financial woes, Harvard’s multi-million dollar Allston development fund had been all but wiped out by the financial crisis as of early March, scuttling the hopes of some Harvard faculty and administrators that the money could be diverted toward their own strapped budgets. Allston residents feared Harvard would halt construction on the science complex—a core component of the University’s ambitious plans to build a new campus across the Charles River—originally due to be completed in 2011. Their fears were confirmed this December, when Harvard announced it will halt construction of the science complex indefinitely in early spring 2010 after the structure’s foundation is completed but before the building becomes ready for tenants.
4) SKIP GATES-GATE
Renowned Harvard Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. was arrested by Cambridge police at his own home in July, prompting a national discussion about racial profiling and sparking a media frenzy that ensnared even President Barack Obama. Police were tipped off by a passerby who says she saw what appeared to be a break-in at the home. But the individuals she saw were actually Gates and his car driver forcing their way through the professor's jammed front door. Police Sgt. James Crowley, who arrived on the scene to investigate, said that Gates reacted belligerently and refused to identify himself when asked, but Gates said that he cooperated fully and that officers had targeted him because he is black. The alleged line "ya, I'll speak with your mama outside" has even made its public rounds. Even though the "disorderly conduct" charge was quickly dropped, the controversy continued to grow, fanned by Obama's nationally televised remarks that police had "acted stupidly" in arresting the professor. Obama later acknowledged that he had erred in his choice of words and brought Gates and Crowley to the White House to discuss the incident over beers.
3) MASS LAYOFFS SWEEP THROUGH STAFF
In an effort to right itself after news of a precipitous drop in the University's endowment, Harvard officials offered early retirement packages to staff in February to push back the possibility of layoffs. The plan, available to staff over 55 who have worked at the University for over 10 years, was implemented in two phases, first at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical and Dental Schools and then at the remaining schools. Roughly 530 employees accepted early retirement incentive packages this spring, exceeding the University's expectations, but Harvard was forced to lay off 275 employees in June as well as offer reduced or changed work hours to approximately 40 others. Check out The Crimson's coverage of cuts in staffing at FAS, HMS, HLS, HBS, and the Harvard College Library.
FAS Dean Michael D. Smith announced in November that he will shrink the number of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, ending a decade-long expansion in order to offset the school’s $110 million deficit. The news was followed by faculty retirement plans at FAS as well as four of the University's graduate schools.
2) FINANCIAL DOOM AND GLOOM HITS CAMPUS
For all its implications of a fresh start, the commencement of 2009 was unable to shed the atmosphere of financial doom and gloom that persisted from the previous year. In March, Harvard announced that the payout from the endowment would decline by 8 percent in dollar value for the fiscal year ending in June 2010, and projected another 8 percent fall from 2010 to 2011. The news came as a surprise, especially since it marked a significant departure from expectations in the previous fall for scenarios ranging from a flat payout to a 2 percent decline in dollar value. In September, Harvard announced that its invested endowment assets took a 27.3 percent hit in the past fiscal year, bringing the total value of the endowment as of June 30 down to $26 billion (since December of 2008, the University had been planning for a 30 percent drop-of in endowment value for the year ending June 2009).
But those were the numbers. The reality of the souring fiscal climate hit especially close to home when Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith unveiled in May a series of sweeping cost-cutting measures throughout FAS, which left few areas of student life untouched: fewer hot breakfast offerings, the closure of two campus cafes, the downgrading of three junior varsity teams to club status, and even reduced shuttle service. The cutbacks published on the FAS Web site amounted to $77 million in projected savings, or a third of the total $220 million projected annual deficit that FAS administrators said they hoped to close by July 2011. For all the professed savings, however, shocked students and faculty expressed their concerns with the pervasive culture of budget trimming: “This stinks of rhetoric—the whole Web site does," as one student eloquently stated at a subsequent town hall meeting. In September, Smith announced that FAS had cut about half of its $220 million projected annual deficit, heralding some good news to pierce what had been an unwieldy fiscal maelstrom for the earlier part of 2009.
1) KIRKLAND SHOOTING
On that fateful May afternoon, e-mail lists on campus went afire with anxious messages and questions regarding a rumored shooting on campus, coupled with cryptic text messages sent through the "Message Me" system. Cambridge resident Justin Cosby, 21, had been shot to death in the basement of Kirkland House in what prosecutors say was a failed “drug rip.” Cosby was found with $1,000 and one pound of marijuana near his body, and The Crimson reported that he may have been involved in drug sales to Harvard students. Three months later, police apprehended all three suspects they believe were involved in the shooting. Jabrai J. Copney, 20, was the first to be arrested and arraigned after he turned himself in to police in late May. He’s since been indicted on five charges including first-degree murder, and he pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Police say that Copney, an aspiring songwriter, pulled the trigger on Cosby. Blayn “Bliz” Jiggetts, 19, was arrested in Harlem in early June and was arraigned in Manhattan over the summer but refused to return to Massachusetts voluntarily to face charges, which also include first-degree murder. Jason Aquino, 23, was the final suspect to be arrested by police in connection to the shooting and faces the same charges as Jiggetts. In late July, he was arraigned in Manhattan and extradited to Cambridge, where he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.