JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL the Grand Old Party at Harvard, and Gus- about [the class],” Shoemaker remarked. Chinese restaurant, the Hong Kong, for a morino, former president of the Under- Following the final exam in May, he and celebratory luncheon with the class. The graduate Council, traced the evolution of Gomes headed to the Square’s lowbrow o∞cial CUE Guide rating on the course will student government at the Col- not be out until September, but lege, beginning with the first the course was popular enough student council in 1908. Other that some of its students are students researched the Society talking about auditing it again of Fellows, the Schlesinger Li- next spring. “Gomes himself brary’s world-renowned cook- noted that we were somewhat book collection, and the history odd for taking the class, and that of student uprisings at the Col- he was somewhat odd for giving lege, beginning with the Great it—but we all love Harvard his- Butter Rebellion in 1766 and the tory,” Ganeshananthan said. Rotten Cabbage Rebellion of garrett m. graff 1807. “We were very surprised by Garrett M. Gra≠ ’03, one of this maga- how serious the students were zine’s new Berta Greenwald Ledecky The Faculty Room as it appeared at Undergraduate Fellows (see page 79), the end of the nineteenth century HARVARD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES received an A in Religion 1513. too many years before the Houses were Mastering in the ’70s integrated, he had a call from the then Drugs, sex, and hot breakfasts master at 6 a.m. saying “There’s a woman betty vorenberg in the Dunster yard; what are you going by to do about it?” He also recalled that one frequently voiced objection to admitting In the spring of 1973 Harvard presi- had no closets because the valet for Low- women to the Houses had been that the dent Derek Bok asked my husband, Jim ell’s first master kept the master’s clothes “level of conversation in the dining hall Vorenberg, to be master of Dunster in a room down the hall. But in the sum- will drop.” House. We had been married three years mer of 1973, Harvard traditions did not ap- The Houses were simply a microcosm and had five kids between us. Jim was the pear so quaint. One afternoon a senior of the outside world and, like the outside first law-school professor to be a master. buildings and grounds administrator said world, Harvard was sexist. When I at- We moved into the House in June. Jim to me, “We’re not used to dealing with the tended a masters’ meeting in Jim’s place had already left for Washington to help masters’ wives, Betty.” He later became that first spring it was awkward. But his law-school colleague Archie Cox set one of my dear friends, but the Houses within a year some of the masters’ wives up the Watergate special prosecutor’s of- were changing and more than one admin- were petitioning President Bok for o∞cial fice, leaving me surrounded by boxes. All istrator was bewildered. status. His response was equivocal: we that summer I worked to get the master’s could be “assistant masters” or “associate residence in order for the opening of the Although some of the houses, in- masters.” I told the Crimson that women school year. I was able to borrow art and cluding Dunster, had already had under- were always the “a’s”—associates, assis- furniture from the Fogg, and many won- graduate women in residence on an ex- tants, administrative this or that—and derful people from the buildings and perimental basis, the that wasn’t good grounds department cooperated by paint- decision that women enough. Derek re- ing and installing lights and especially by and men would live lented and let us call making major changes in the kitchen, together in all the ourselves anything which had been designed for an age when Harvard and Rad- we wished. That vic- servants did all the work. Since we were a cli≠e Houses repre- tory came with a family who liked food and liked to cook sented a major shift. small stipend. The and eat together, changes were imperative. Our first senior newer masters’ wives Later, I learned to relax and laugh at the tutor, who had lived called themselves co- “olden days.” I was amused to find out in Dunster since master; the wives that the master bedroom in Lowell House 1969, told us that not who had been there before 1973 chose as- At diploma ceremonies at Dunster House, Master Vorenberg hands a degree to John T. Day Jr., Ph.D. ’77, now an administrator at Saint Olaf sociate master. College in Northfield, Minnesota. Day holds his son, Nathaniel. COURTESY BETTY VORENBERG By the end of the 68 September - October 2002 95-5746. print information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-4 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and re Malkin Renewal Nothing exceeds like success. Last summer, the Malkin Ath- letic Center (MAC) installed some new exercise equipment, completely refurbishing its weightlifting rooms. “We’ve gotten great feedback on it,” says director of athletics Bob Scalise, M.B.A. ’89.“And, of course, now the lines to use equipment are longer.” With its convenient location between Kirkland and Lowell Houses, the MAC—the former Indoor Athletic Building, renamed in 1985 when a gift from the Malkin family made possi- ble a major renovation—is a heavily trafficked facility. Perhaps a thousand faculty and staff members and students hoist dumb- bells, sweat on treadmills, and swim laps there daily, straining it to capacity. Harvard hopes to rehab the structure again some time in the next few years. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the athletic de- partment are jointly pursuing this project.They hired the archi- The indoor swimming pool at Malkin. Future renovations will likely tectural firm HNTB to do a space study for all of Harvard’s ath- remove the rarely used spectator galleries at the sides. letic facilities and received the report this spring. “It’s a needs The MAC’s heavily used swimming pool is likely to remain, al- analysis, a report on what we have and what we may need,” says though the spectator galleries flanking it will probably disappear, Scalise.“It did not provide plans or detailed options.” because intercollegiate swim meets now take place at Blodgett Currently, the MAC, which houses both recreational and in- Pool. “We want to take [underutilized] space and create more tercollegiate programs, is home to three of Harvard’s 41 varsity usable space,” Scalise says. After soliciting proposals from archi- sports: wrestling, volleyball, and fencing.The ultimate goal, Scalise tects during the summer, Harvard expects to choose a firm this says, is “dedicating as much of the MAC as possible to recre- fall to produce a detailed proposal with drawings. ational use, and relocating some of the intercollegiate programs One tricky aspect of renovating the MAC may be finding ways to other facilities,” probably in the Soldiers Field area. (Housing to keep its exercise facilities available while the work goes on. the migrant teams will create another design challenge, but the The basketball court, for example, might become temporarily a players should eventually gain benefits like improved locker cardiovascular workout room.“That’s one thing we will ask the space.) Within the MAC, a key goal is to generate “space that is architects: how do we phase in the plans to cause minimal dis- flexible enough to be used for different activities,” says Mike ruption?” Scalise says. “The degree of disruption depends on Lichten, assistant dean for physical resources in FAS. what needs to be done.We won’t know that for awhile.” first summer we were very comfortable in field. Jim was quite strict about their re- house sections of the large survey courses, the House, Jim was commuting only one sponsibilities and their obligation to the so although tutors and students were day a week to Washington, and we were students. No tutor was guaranteed a friends, there was also a teacher-student looking forward to the students’ arrival. chance to stay on if he or she failed to meet relationship and the inherent danger of They were earnest, energetic, and eager to those standards. Very few flunked out. favors being traded: sex for grades. But meet us. Each fall we invited the tutors for a sexual harassment was not even a phrase supper at which Jim delivered his annual in use, much less an issue, in those days, Hiring really good tutors—to advise on admonition, what came to be known as and there was no universal policy for the professional and graduate schools and to the “no sex or drugs” rule: tutors were Houses; the Vorenberg policy may have cover the major concentrations—was the not to have sex with the undergraduates been the first. After one orientation din- single most important job of the masters, nor were they to “do” drugs with them. ner, a nonresident tutor was heard—un- in our opinion. We had to turn down The senior tutor had informed us that at fortunately for him by the most militantly many fine candidates, including (as he re- least 90 percent of the students smoked feminist tutor in the House—asking what cently reminded me) a graduate student marijuana, and Jim felt it was too much of the use was of being a tutor if you could- in economics named Larry Summers. a challenge to put a stop to that, so he n’t sleep with the girls.