2019-2020 Harvard College Handbook for Students Welcome Dear Students in Harvard College: For almost four centuries, Harvard College has been educating responsible citizens and citizen-leaders for our society. When you join the Harvard community, you are embarking on a liberal arts and sciences education that is meant to be transformative – academically, socially, and personally. The Handbook for Students is designed to orient you to Harvard College as you begin this journey. It contains information on the academic, social, and personal development opportunities available to you and the many resources to help you find advice and make good choices. The Handbook can be your guide to academic requirements, our residential system, and the many activities that take place outside the classroom. You will also find in these pages the broad outlines of the concentrations and secondary fields offered by the College. Importantly, the Handbook clarifies the values and standards we hold as a community and that we expect you to honor in your conduct as a student in the College. If you ever have questions about any of these standards, please do not hesitate to reach out to your professors, TFs, tutors, proctors, or Allston Burr Resident Dean or Resident Dean of First-Year Students. As members of an academic community committed to the search for truth and knowledge, we all share the responsibility for upholding these standards. To that end, the College has adopted an honor code. The Honor Code is the result of several years of open discussion and collaboration between students, faculty and staff. A copy of the code can be found on the Honor Code website. As you read this Handbook, I hope you will consider the numerous possibilities it suggests. The next four years provide the best possible opportunity for you to stretch, take a chance, in your curricular and extra- curricular life. There is no one best way to “do Harvard,” and students who are open to new experiences get the most from their time here. Your years at Harvard will be well spent if you venture beyond your “comfort zones” both inside and outside the classroom. Take time to reflect on who you are and who you are trying to become. Take classes in subjects that introduce you to fields and ideas outside of your concentration and help you develop new ways of thinking and understanding. Participate in activities you have never tried. And most important of all, reach out to and connect with people who are different from you. The Harvard community is staggeringly diverse in interests, talents, backgrounds, demography, and values. Our ability to meaningfully engage in a diverse community can set the patterns for the changes we want to see in our larger society. Life at the College, as anywhere, can be confusing and feel overwhelming. Remember that there are many people available here to help you work through these moments and think through your choices, both academic and otherwise. Seek out advisers you like and trust, and never be afraid to ask for some of their time. We hope that you will read this Handbook carefully and use it to find the support you need. You don’t have to earn the right to ask for help. Everyone at the College wants you to flourish. I look forward to meeting many of you at functions both formal and informal. Please feel free to come to my office hours to discuss any issues of concern to you, or just to get acquainted. If you see me on campus, please introduce yourself. You can also email me at [email protected]. If there is anything we in the College offices can do to help you better navigate your college life, I hope you will let me know. We want you to feel a part of the rich and varied community that is Harvard. I wish you a happy, healthy, and fruitful year. Rakesh Khurana Danoff Dean of Harvard College Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School Professor of Sociology, Harvard University University Hall, 119 617-495-1560 or [email protected] / Introduction Notice to Students The Mission of Harvard College A Brief History of Harvard College Notice to Students This website contains a review of the rules and procedures of Harvard College with which students are expected to be familiar. Included are the College-wide requirements for the AB and SB degrees. Specific requirements for each of the fields of concentration and secondary fields can be found under the Fields of Concentration and Secondary Fields headings. Also included here is information on a number of the services, programs, and organizations that have been created to bring assistance and enrichment to a student’s undergraduate experience. Throughout this website, “the Registrar” refers to the Office of the Registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Harvard University makes all decisions concerning applicants, students, faculty, and staff on the basis of the individual’s qualifications to contribute to Harvard’s educational objectives and institutional needs. Discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, veteran status, or disability unrelated to job or course requirements is inconsistent with the purposes of a university and with the law. Harvard expects that those with whom it deals will comply with all applicable anti-discrimination laws. In May of 2018, the completion or graduation rate for students who entered Harvard College as first-year students in September 2012 was 98 percent. Review of academic, financial, and other considerations leads to changes in the policies, rules, and regulations applicable to students. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences therefore reserves the right to make changes at any time. These changes may affect such matters as tuition and all other fees, courses, degrees and programs offered (including the modification or possible elimination of degrees and programs), degree and other academic requirements, academic policies, rules pertaining to student conduct and discipline, fields or areas of concentration, and other rules and regulations applicable to students. While every effort has been made to ensure that this book is accurate and up to date, it may include typographical or other errors. Changes are periodically made to this publication and will be incorporated in new editions. Lauren Mulcahy, Case Manager, Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct Brigitte Libby, Assistant Dean, Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct Michael Burke, Registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Sarah Champlin-Scharff, Director of Academic Policy, Office of Undergraduate Education Brett Flehinger, Associate Dean of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct Charlie Stuart, Case Manager, Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct Khaleem Ali, Case Manager, Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct The Official Register of Harvard University Published by the Office of the Dean of Harvard College 617-495-1560 or [email protected] The Mission of Harvard College Harvard College adheres to the purposes for which the Charter of 1650 was granted: “The advancement of all good literature, arts, and sciences; the advancement and education of youth in all manner of good / literature, arts, and sciences; and all other necessary provisions that may conduce to the education of the … youth of this country.” In brief: Harvard strives to create knowledge, to open the minds of students to that knowledge, and to enable students to take best advantage of their educational opportunities. To these ends, the College encourages students to respect ideas and their free expression, and to rejoice in discovery and in critical thought; to pursue excellence in a spirit of productive cooperation; and to assume responsibility for the consequences of personal actions. Harvard seeks to identify and to remove restraints on students’ full participation, so that individuals may explore their capabilities and interests and may develop their full intellectual and human potential. Education at Harvard should liberate students to explore, to create, to challenge, and to lead. The support the College provides to students is a foundation upon which self-reliance and habits of lifelong learning are built: Harvard expects that the scholarship and collegiality it fosters in its students will lead them in their later lives to advance knowledge, to promote understanding, and to serve society. A Brief History of Harvard College Harvard was founded in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and named for its first donor, the Reverend John Harvard, who left his personal library and half his estate to the new institution. Although nothing remains of its earliest buildings, brass markers in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue now indicate where the Goffe and Peyntree Houses once stood. The charter granted to Harvard by the Colony in 1650, with amendments and John Adams’s further definition in the fifth chapter of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, is the authority under which the University of today operates. Like any institution, Harvard has a rich and complex history. Many of our graduates and faculty members, as scholars and citizens, have shaped the political, social, and economic landscape of our nation in countless ways that have contributed to the well-being of society and humanity. As a human institution, we have also sometimes fallen short of our aspirations. There are parts of our history that we can and should learn from. Our falling short in no way detracts from the power of our ideals. Rather, our failures remind us that we should never take for granted what we do and how we do it; we must recognize that as a community devoted to learning, our work is never complete.