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October/November 2007Welcome to the October/November 2007 issue of the Harvard Extension Alumni Association (HEAA) e-newsletter, the Extension Chord. In this issue, you will find results for the 2007 Executive Board election, news on upcoming events, links to useful Harvard University and Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) websites, and news from the Extension School. As always, we welcome your ideas and suggestions for the Chord and the HEAA. Questions and comments may be sent to Grace Scheibner, HEAA president, at grace_scheibner@harvard.edu. We look forward to hearing from you! Grace Scheibner, ALB ’90 Karen Droisen, Coordinator, In This Issue
2007 Executive Board Election ResultsRecord numbers of HEAA members participated in the biennial process of electing an executive board. We are delighted to announce the results: President: Grace Scheibner, ALB ’90 (reelected) Warm congratulations to the winners, who will serve September 2007–August 2009. Statement from the new Executive BoardWe are excited to begin a new term as your officers and are dedicated to serving your interests as Harvard Extension School alumni. Our goal is to build on our recent accomplishments and continue to reach out our fellow alumni in the hope of engaging everyone in active participation in upcoming HEAA events and projects. Thank you for your support and trust. Drew Gilpin Faust, President of Harvard University
Drew Gilpin Faust was formally installed as Harvard’s 28th president during an outdoor ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre on Friday, October 12, 2007. An academic procession featured representatives of universities from around the world. Thousands of Harvard faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members turned out, even in the rain, to participate in the historic rites and wish the new president well. The installation capped off two days of celebrations and convocations, which are chronicled online. Alumni NewsHenry T. Berry, ALM ’99, is CEO of H.T. Berry, Inc. in Canton, Massachusetts. On August 20, 2007, his company sponsored a golf tournament to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Center. The H.T. Berry Open was held at Granite Links in Quincy, Massachusetts. Mark Plotkin, ALB ’79, ethnobotanist, and president of the Amazon Conservation Team, was interviewed live by Jean Feraca on Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), a division of National Public Radio (NPR). During the program Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders on July 18, Feraca talked with Plotkin about how Amazonian Indian tribes are learning to use global positioning system (GPS) technology to map and protect their territory. You can listen to an MP3 recording of the program online. Rory Cowan, ABE ’79, is the founder and CEO of Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. On September 5, 2007, Lionbridge announced that it has signed a three-year agreement with Hillenbrand Industries’ Hill-Rom unit to translate and localize the company’s technical documents, software, and marketing materials. Mary Ellen Sullivan, ALB ’95, CSS ’00, purchased an inn in Rockport, Massachusetts and named it the Kings Road Inn. News from 51 Brattle StreetFor Alumni, ‘Justice’ is Served Online More than 4,000 Harvard alumni will join the roughly 1,000 undergraduates enrolled in Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel’s course, Justice, this fall, making the class the first College course available to alumni via online video streaming. Justice was one of the first Harvard College course offered simultaneously to Harvard College and Extension School students via the Internet. The Extension School’s distance education program was instrumental in the genesis of this course, perhaps most notably in arranging for Professor Sandel to hold virtual office hours, in which Extension students could interact with him in real time from anywhere in the world by posing questions and watching streaming video online. You can read a recent article in the Harvard Crimson and an archived article in the Harvard Gazette. Visit Post.Harvard to learn more about Justice Online. BBC Interviews Religion Scholar Christopher Queen Christopher S. Queen, PhD, lecturer on the study of religion at Harvard University and dean of student and alumni affairs at Harvard Extension School, was interviewed by BBC News reporter Jason Margolis on Public Radio International’s (PRI) September 26 edition of The World. Queen, author of Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, commented on the recent protests in Burma led by Buddhist monks. This spring, Queen will teach RELI E-1010/W World Religions at the Extension School. Information Technology Program Adds a ConcentrationYou can now earn a master's degree with a concentration in digital media arts and sciences at Harvard Extension School. Offered through the ALM in Information Technology Program, this new concentration requires 10 courses, including a thesis. The degree can be earned through any combination of online and on-campus courses, although there is a minimum residency requirement of one 4-credit, on-campus-only course. New Distance Education Facility Open
A major classroom and distance education production facility opened this fall at the Harvard Extension School. Classes that are held in this new facility give online students the ability to view on-campus lectures in real-time and actively take part in classroom discussions. The facility additionally serves as an experimental classroom for testing and evaluating distance education teaching methods and technology. Boasting $1 million in state-of-the-art equipment, the new facility allows a number of distance courses to be taught simultaneously. The Extension School is among a small number of universities across the country offering streaming video of actual college courses to its distance education students. Taking this unique delivery to the next level, the new facility will permit online students from around the world to learn and participate in class as if they were on the Harvard campus. This fall, 16 Harvard Extension School courses and numerous course “sections” are being held in the new facility, accommodating more than 200 on-campus students and hundreds of online students. “Everyone at Harvard is excited about the potential for more sophisticated and innovative distance teaching at the University and the addition of this state-of-the-art facility,” says Michael Shinagel, dean of the Harvard Division of Continuing Education and the Harvard Extension School. The Extension School currently offers more than 100 open enrollment courses online, 25 of which are recorded lectures of Harvard College daytime courses. If you have ever wanted to take another course at the Extension School but your schedule kept you from doing so, consider a distance education course. Much of the communication between faculty and students occurs by e-mail and course websites. Many courses also have a bulletin board or chat room to foster dialogue among students and the teaching staff. You can read about current distance courses and even sample some course lectures in the Extension School’s online catalog. New Career Services for AlumniThanks to Suzanne Spreadbury, director of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts (ALB) Program at Harvard Extension School, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Office of Career Services (OCS) now offers a broader variety of career services to Harvard Extension School alumni. These services include individual career counseling (by referral) with OCS Assistant Director Linda Spencer, and full access to CareerBeam, a comprehensive online career research and resource tool. Linda is also available for drop-in career counseling to answer quick questions about career options, resumes, cover letters, job search, and interview skills. Appointments are ordinarily 15 minutes each and are available every Friday, from 9 am to 1 pm, October 12 to May 30, at 51 Brattle Street, Room 501. No preregistration is necessary; just come by between 9 am and 12:45 pm any Friday. The OCS website has more information about their services. Downloadable OCS referral forms are available online. In MemoriamAllan Rohan Crite, ABE ’68
Allan Rohan Crite, the “dean of African-American artists in New England,” and a Harvard Extension School alumnus, passed away on September 6, 2007. He was 97. Crite earned his ABE in 1968 and, in 1986, received the 350th Harvard University Anniversary Medal. Allan Crite also worked at the Extension School's Grossman Library part-time from 1974 until 1989. In 1986 the Harvard Extension School and the Harvard Extension Alumni Association established the Annamae and Allan R. Crite Prize in honor of Crite and his mother, Annamae, who regularly attended courses for more than 50 years and encouraged her son to pursue studies at the Extension School. Crite prizes are awarded to Harvard Extension School undergraduate or graduate degree recipients who demonstrate “singular dedication to learning and the arts.” Read the Boston Globe obituary. Read the reprint of a Boston Globe Magazine story in the 2000 Harvard Extension School Alumni Bulletin. Wilga Rivers, Faculty MemberWilga Rivers, Harvard Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Emerita, and long-time Harvard Extension School faculty member, passed away on June 23 at the age of 88. For more than two decades Professor Rivers taught LING E-200 Theory and Practice of Language Teaching at the Extension School, a course for teachers or future teachers of any language. She last taught the course in fall 2004. “Extension School students have always been among my favorites,” she remarked in a 2000 Harvard Extension School Alumni Bulletin interview. “They have experiences they want to share, and they really want to be here.” Her involvement at the Extension School extended beyond the classroom. In 1978 she joined the Extension School’s administrative board, a position she held until her retirement from Harvard University in 1990. She also served as a thesis advisor to many students concentrating in linguistics in the Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) Program. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Professor Rivers was an internationally renowned scholar and author, and one of the first women to be appointed to a full professorship at Harvard. A memorial service will take place at Harvard in the fall. Upcoming HEAA EventsWe have many exciting events planned for fall 2007. Please join us! You will receive postcard and broadcast e-mail invitations to each event about three weeks before its scheduled date. You can also watch slideshows of past events on our website. New this year: Alumni from the classes of 2006, 2007, and 2008 may purchase tickets at reduced rates. Please see below for more information. Go Crimson! Harvard-Yale Game Tailgate Party at Harvard Extension SchoolSaturday, November 17, 2007 Join us on Saturday, November 17 at 51 Brattle Street for a festive pregame outdoor barbeque lunch with all the fixings, including beer, soft drinks, and dessert. At kickoff time, we will move indoors to the comfort of the Grossman Common Room to watch the Crimson squad take on arch rival Yale in New Haven. Tickets for alumni and friends are $30 each. Alumni who graduated in 2006, 2007, or 2008 may purchase tickets for $25 each. To purchase tickets, please send your check, made out to “Harvard University,” to the Alumni Affairs Office at 51 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Tickets must be purchased by Monday, November 5. Due to space constraints, no tickets will be sold at the door. After Hours at the FoggFriday, December 7, 2007 Join us for an elegant, private evening at the Fogg, Harvard’s oldest art museum. This will be one of your last chances to tour the Fogg before it closes for renovations in 2008. We will stroll through the museum’s Italian Renaissance-style Calderwood Courtyard and peruse the galleries of Italian early Renaissance, British pre-Raphaelite, and nineteenth-century French art, including the Wertheim Collection, one of America’s finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist work. Docents and curators from the Fogg Museum and Extension instructors in the history of art and architecture will be on hand to answer your questions about the collection and lead tours. Refreshments, including light hors d'oeuvres, desserts, a selection of wines, and coffee, will be served all evening long in the Courtyard. Free parking is available at the Broadway Garage. Advance tickets for alumni and friends are $40 each. Alumni who graduated in 2006, 2007, or 2008 may purchase tickets for $35 each. To purchase advance tickets, please send your check, made out to “Harvard University,” to the Alumni Affairs Office at 51 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Tickets will be sold at the door on a space-available basis for $50 each, payable by cash or check. Upcoming HAA EventsAll Harvard Extension School alumni are also members of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA), the umbrella organization for all university graduates. You can browse other Harvard alumni events on the master alumni event calendar. For more information, contact HAA Alumni Education at (617) 495-1920 or haa_alumnieducation@harvard.edu. Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Family ProgramThursday November 1, 2007 A festive and social occasion, the holiday welcomes the return of those who have died and recognizes the human cycle of life and death. Originating with the Aztecs, the Mexican “Days of the Dead” today are a unique blend of Aztec and Christian rituals. The evening includes a live, puppet play followed by a discussion with Professor Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin America at the Harvard Divinity School. Traditional Day of Dead refreshments and wine will be served during the program. The Peabody’s permanent Day of the Dead exhibit is open for touring. The ticket price includes admission, program materials, refreshments, and parking. HAA TravelsThe HAA Travel Program offers about 50 unique trips each year to all seven continents. Accompanied by Harvard academics, trips range from five days in Miami exploring the connection between design and food, to two weeks in China following in Marco Polo’s footsteps. Below is a selected of upcoming program. Read about other programs at the HEAA Travels website.
Travel to China and East Asia in the company of former President George H.W. Bush, Kennedy School of Government Professor Roger Porter, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and historian Jonathan Spence for an in-depth exploration of political events and economic changes in the region. Aboard the luxury ship Silver Whisper, engage in conversations with a group of distinguished leaders whose decisions influenced international relations and the course of history. | ||||
