All articles tagged with #harvard
Harvard renames its Science Center to Zimmer Hall in honor of Alan Zimmer after a $100 million gift from the Zimmer Family Foundation, with funds supporting further campus renovations as well as expanded kosher dining and Jewish-life initiatives on campus.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analyzed over 94,000 nights of Apple Watch sleep data from 338 Women’s Health Study participants (ages 25–59). The study found increased wake time during sleep around perimenopause/menopause: about 60% showed higher wake-after-sleep-onset (WASO) in the 18 months before menopause with an average 7% rise; in the year before/after the last period, sleep time awake rose about 0.8% after menopause compared with before. Results varied widely between individuals, and common menopause symptoms (hot flashes, irritability, mental fatigue, sexual symptoms) were often linked with poorer sleep. Researchers also offered tips to improve sleep during perimenopause, such as cooling the sleep environment, keeping a regular schedule, regular movement, limiting fluids near bedtime, and practicing relaxation.
Harvard faculty approved a plan to cap A grades at no more than 20% of enrolled students plus four per class, in effect Fall 2027, with supporters saying it will restore meaning to grades and distinguish high performers while critics warn it curtails faculty autonomy and imposes a quota. The vote also endorsed using average percentile ranks for internal prizes and rejected allowing courses to skip letter grades entirely. The move reflects a broader campus debate on grade inflation seen at peers like Yale, Princeton and others, and administrators will review the policy after three years.
Harvard College faculty approved a roughly 20% cap on A grades, limiting A grades to 24 per class of 100, with the rule taking effect in fall 2027. The move is part of reforms to restore the integrity of grading after a 2025 report found the system inflated As and damaged academic culture. A second proposal to use average percentile rankings for internal awards passed, while a third opt-out option was rejected. The measures faced broad student disapproval (about 85% in a survey), but supporters say the cap will restore the transcript’s signaling value and the college’s academic standards.
Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to cap A grades in undergraduate courses, allowing no more than 20% of students in a class (plus four additional students) to receive an A, starting in Fall 2027. A− grades would not be subject to the cap. The reform, intended to curb grade inflation after data showing over 60% of undergrad grades were in the A range, also shifts honors comparisons to average percentile rank instead of GPA. An opt-out for a satisfactory/unsatisfactory option was rejected, and the policy will be reviewed after three years.
Harvard’s longtime head coach Ted Donato, a Harvard alumnus from the class of 1991, is stepping away from the men’s hockey program after a lengthy tenure guiding the Crimson.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Harvard University, alleging its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus and seeking to freeze federal grants and recover funds already paid.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a 44-page federal lawsuit against Harvard University in Massachusetts, alleging the school violated Title VI by discriminating against Jewish and Israeli students and creating a hostile campus environment after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack; DOJ seeks billions in federal funding and says Harvard knew about harassment but failed to act. Harvard defends its efforts to address antisemitism and will contest the suit. The case follows prior government actions in this dispute, including a court ruling related to funding, and Harvard is slated to receive more than $2.6 billion in federal grants from HHS.
The Pentagon, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, says active-duty personnel will be barred from attending certain elite universities for graduate programs starting next academic year, citing woke indoctrination concerns. Harvard is explicitly noted as off limits, and a broader DoD review of senior service schools and war colleges is planned, though specifics and which institutions are affected have not been disclosed.
Larry Summers, former Harvard president, will resign from teaching at Harvard and step down as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at Harvard Kennedy School as a government release of Epstein-related documents renews scrutiny of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Larry Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard president, will retire from his Harvard professorship at the end of the academic year amid ongoing scrutiny of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after stepping back from teaching last year and relinquishing roles as he faced disclosures and investigations that have roiled political and academic circles.
A Lucky Day Lotto ticket sold at Chemung Country Store in unincorporated Harvard (McHenry County) matched all five numbers (2, 15, 28, 31, 43) to win $1.15 million in Saturday’s drawing. The store will receive a $11,500 bonus for selling the winning ticket, and plans to reinvest much of the prize in the business and staff. Across Illinois, nearly 74,000 winning tickets were sold, totaling more than $1.3 million in prizes; winners have one year to claim their winnings.
A large observational study of over 130,000 people (Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study) links midlife caffeinated coffee and tea intake with a lower risk of dementia later in life. The strongest associations were two to three cups of coffee or one to two cups of tea daily, with coffee users about 18% and tea users about 14% less likely to develop dementia. Decaffeinated options did not show the same benefit. Because the study is observational, it cannot prove causation; remaining cautious about caffeine intake is advised, and coffee/tea should complement other brain-healthy lifestyle habits.
A BMJ Medicine study analyzing data from over 111,000 adults across 30 years found that those who varied their exercise types had about a 19% lower mortality risk than those with less variety, with higher total activity offering benefits up to a plateau around 20 hours per week. The results show association, not causation, and note limitations like self-reported activity and limited demographic diversity.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel used his monologue to mock Trump and propose a tongue-in-cheek fix: award him an imaginary degree, specifically the ‘Donald J. Trump Penis Brain Prize,’ potentially awarded by Harvard, to defuse distraction headlines as Trump sues others over damages; the quip mirrors similar satirical awards (like FIFA’s hypothetical Peace Prize) aimed at undercutting Trump’s public narrative amid Epstein-related news.