The Crimson also examined the issue with features investigating the University’s handling of mental health. The three-part series found that students may be more depressed than the University would like to admit. Following the narratives of four current undergraduates who have attempted suicide while enrolled at Harvard, the series examined the difficult paths mentally ill students navigate once they enroll at Harvard, the ways University Health Services could better serve them, and the efforts of University officials and student activists to change the disheartening numbers.

9. University Prepares for the Capital Campaign

Conversations with senior University administrators and prominent donors revealed Harvard’s plans to launch a more than $6 billion University capital campaign in late 2013. The University continued its march towards the public launch date this past year as administrators began to reveal the campaign’s funding priorities and donors pulled out their checkbooks in support.

The University’s efforts to renew the College’s 12 residential Houses, which have an estimated price tag of more than a billion dollars, attracted millions from high-profile donors, including the Hutchins Family Foundation. This past year the University revealed that Dunster House would be the next to be renewed, following the completion of the renovations of Quincy and Leverett Houses.

In October, University President Drew G. Faust declared her intention to make the construction of a campus center in the Holyoke Center a campaign priority. For years, the campaign for a student center has been a top priority for student activists.

Administrators announced that the long-delayed construction of a science center in Allston would resume in 2014, an indication of what is sure to be one of the University’s top campaign priorities. The building will eventually house academic projects for stem cell science and the engineering and physical sciences. The University also announced plans to construct a new basketball arena to meet the increased demands that have resulted from the success of Harvard’s basketball program.

Other priorities, including teaching and learning, have been less clearly defined, but are sure to feature prominently in the campaign.

8. Harvard Sees Two Stranger Rapes in Five Days

The first was on an early August morning in Harvard Yard, reported by a woman who told police she was grabbed and dragged behind Massachusetts Hall. The second was just four days later, reported by a different woman who said she was raped near Oxford and Kirkland Streets. As the first stranger rapes to be reported on Harvard’s campus in more than 12 years, they raised the question: was the close proximity of the two attacks a disturbing coincidence or a sign of a more pervasive safety problem?