As they prepared to return to campus in the aftermath of the attacks, concerned students suspected it was the latter, calling for tightened security and more frequent shuttle service. But as the fall progressed, student activism to prevent campus rape turned towards Harvard’s sexual assault policy. Harvard administrators had said after Yale changed its policies over the summer that they had no plans to change their existing procedures, but students petitioned anyway, creating a referendum question on the issue to be voted on in the November Undergraduate Council presidential election. The ballot question called for Harvard to endorse the requirement for “affirmative consent” to sex, change the language of its assault policies to include additional BGLTQ-friendly language, and make its case review process more transparent. That student referendum passed with the support of 85 percent of students who cast ballots in the election. But administrators resisted the electorate’s call for change, saying that Harvard was nowhere close to reforming its procedures. They did, however, host a panel to clarify and answer student questions about the University’s existing sexual assault policies.

7. Harvard Opens the Office of BGLTQ Student Life and Picks Its First-Ever Director To Lead It

After nearly a year of anticipation, Harvard’s new Office of BGLTQ Student Life held its grand opening in a moment that some called a watershed for institutional support of the BGLTQ community at Harvard. Following student rallies and recommendations from a working group, Hammonds in April 2011 announced plans to create a more visible office in Boylston Hall that would replace the existing student-staffed Queer Resource Center in Thayer basement and to appoint a paid full-time director to lead the new office. But the plans got off to a rocky start when Lisa “Lee” Forest, who was appointed as the new director in September 2011, turned down the position just days before she was slated to start. It was not until summer 2012 that Vanidy “Van” Bailey was tapped as Harvard’s first permanent director of BGLTQ Student Life. Bailey began the position soon after.

With the new office open and Bailey at the helm, BGLTQ students said this fall that they felt more comfortable coming out at Harvard and asking others to use gender neutral pronouns. Administrators joined in, as staffers in the Office of Student Life shared their preferred gender pronouns as an icebreaker at a recent retreat. The Crimson published a scrutiny entitled “Can You Tell?” featuring seven BGLTQ varsity athletes who say that, in fact, one cannot tell the difference between a gay athlete and a straight one.

Despite these positive signs, some have pointed to lingering challenges facing the BGLTQ community at Harvard. In June, Harvard Kennedy School lecturer Timothy P. McCarthy ’93 posted a status update on Facebook voicing concern about the recent departures of seven of his BGLTQ colleagues in what he termed a “queer exodus” from Harvard. Several of those departed colleagues told The Crimson that despite the progress made in 2012, Harvard’s climate for the BGLTQ community and its academic support for BGLTQ studies have room for improvement.

6. Harvard Reorganizes Its Library System

By all measures, 2012 was a transformative year for libraries at Harvard. The system of more than 70 libraries officially became a unified Harvard Library in August. The process—a multi-year effort—was far from seamless.

The tumult began with the coming of the new year as senior library administrators announced in January that the reorganization would result in a smaller staff without explaining how cuts would be achieved. Upset about whether this change would include layoffs, library workers protested, wrote letters, and attended meetings while the University struggled to respond. In one instance, library workers were outraged over documents circulated online that suggested that University Provost Alan M. Garber '76 and Library Executive Director Helen Shenton had made light of the situation facing library employees. Throughout the reorganization, Harvard faculty and staff expressed confusion about the process and what it aimed to achieve. In the end, six employees lost their jobs involuntarily.

In the face of protest and anger, administrators agreed communication throughout the process could have been improved. “We could have done and plan to do a better job communicating in the future,” Garber told The Crimson. Still, the University explained that a smaller staff was necessary to achieve its larger goal of making the newly unified Harvard Library a model 21st century library.

Allowing increased access to Harvard’s collections played a crucial role in the modernization effort. In April, the University announced that it would make more than 12 million records available to the public. More than 17 million of the Library’s documents will be key to the collection of the Digital Public Library of America when it opens next year.

5. Students Advocate For Responsible Investment

Following a year in which “The Protester” made headlines and occupiers shut down Harvard Yard, in 2012 student advocates at Harvard found their stride. In fall 2011, students founded Responsible Investment, a group with the stated goal of “changing the way Harvard manages its money.” In April, Harvard Management Company—the organization tasked with investing the University’s more than $30 billion endowment—announced that it would not reinvest in HEI Hotels & Resorts, a hotel chain that had been criticized for repeated allegations of failure to comply with labor regulations. Students from Responsible Investment and across campus celebrated the announcement as a victory, although HMC President and CEO Jane L. Mendillo denied that the decision was a response to HEI’s labor practices.