Harvard University

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harvard University
The university in 1740
MottoVeritas[1]
Motto in English
Truth
TypePrivate
Established1636[2]
EndowmentUS $40.9 billion[3] [4]
Academic staff
2,107[5]
Administrative staff
2,497 non-medical
10,674 medical
Students21,225
Undergraduates7,181 total
6,655 College
526 Extension
Postgraduates14,044
Location, ,
CampusUrban
210 acres (85 ha) (Main campus)
22 acres (8.9 ha) (Medical campus)
359 acres (145 ha) (Allston campus)[6]
NewspaperThe Harvard Crimson
ColorsCrimson  
Athletics41 Varsity Teams
Ivy League
NCAA Division I
NicknameHarvard Crimson
Websiteharvard.edu

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Harvard was started on September 8, 1636, and it is the oldest university in the United States. Harvard's current president is Lawrence Bacow. The school color is crimson, which is a dark red color.

Harvard used slaves to serve its leaders and students, and the merchants who used their money to start the school used slaves too.[7] Also, “Harvard students slept in beds and ate meals prepared by slaves, and many grew up to be prominent slave-holders in early America."[8] In the 20th century, the university invested millions of dollars in apartheid South Africa.[9]

Harvard is on the Charles River. Some students go to the Charles River for rowing. On the other side of the Charles River is the city of Boston. Boston's subway system has a stop at Harvard. Some of Harvard's graduate schools are in Boston, but most of Harvard's schools are in Cambridge. Together, these schools are Harvard University.

Harvard has many libraries like Widener Library. There are other facilities like skating rinks and the Malkin Athletic Center where students can swim and exercise.

Harvard is almost always ranked as one of the best universities in the world. Another famous school close to Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Eight Presidents of the United States have graduated from Harvard.[10] Harvard has over $40 billion. There have been 161 Nobel Laureates from Harvard University.[11]

Notable alumni[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Appearing as it does on the coat of arms itself, Veritas is not a motto in the usual heraldic sense. Properly speaking, rather, Harvard's original motto is Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae ("Truth for Christ and the Church") Archived 2010-07-02 at the Wayback Machine as shown on Harvard's original shield or seal. This legend is otherwise not used today.
  2. An appropriation of £400 toward a "school or college" was voted on October 28, 1636 (OS), at a meeting which initially convened on September 8 and was adjourned to October 28. Some sources consider October 28, 1636 (OS) (November 7, 1636 NS) to be the date of founding. In 1936, Harvard's multi-day tercentenary celebration considered that Harvard rocks, on September 18 to be the 300-year anniversary of the founding. (The bicentennial was celebrated on September 8, 1836, apparently ignoring the calendar change; and the tercentenary celebration began by opening a package sealed by Josiah Quincy at the bicentennial). Sources: meeting dates, Quincy, Josiah (1860). History of Harvard University. 117 Washington Street, Boston: Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Co. ISBN 9780405100161.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link), p. 586, "At a Court holden September 8th, 1636 and continued by adjournment to the 28th of the 8th month (October, 1636)... the Court agreed to give £400 towards a School or College, whereof £200 to be paid next year...." Tercentenary dates: "Cambridge Birthday". Time Magazine. 1936-09-28. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2006-09-08.: "Harvard claims birth on the day the Massachusetts Great and General Court convened to authorize its founding. This was Sept. 8, 1637 under the Julian calendar. Allowing for the ten-day advance of the Gregorian calendar, Tercentenary officials arrived at Sept. 18 as the date for the third and last big Day of the celebration;" "r that 'school or college' [was voted by] the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony." Bicentennial date: Marvin Hightower (2003-09-02). "Harvard Gazette: This Month in Harvard History". Harvard University. Archived from the original on 2006-09-08. Retrieved 2006-09-15., "Sept. 8, 1836 - Some 1,100 to 1,300 alumni flock to Harvard's Bicentennial, at which a professional choir premieres "Fair Harvard." ... guest speaker Josiah Quincy Jr., Class of 1821, makes a motion, unanimously adopted, 'that this assembly of the Alumni be adjourned to meet at this place on the 8th of September, 1936.'" Tercentary opening of Quincy's sealed package: The New York Times, September 9, 1936, p. 24, "Package Sealed in 1836 Opened at Harvard. It Held Letters Written at Bicentenary": "September 8th, 1936: As the first formal function in the celebration of Harvard's tercentenary, the Harvard Alumni Association witnessed the opening by President Conant of the 'mysterious' package sealed by President Josiah Quincy at the Harvard bicentennial in 1836."
  3. Mendillo, Jane L. "September 2011 Harvard Management Company Endowment Report" (PDF). Harvard Management Company. Retrieved 23 September 2011.[permanent dead link]
  4. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2011 Endowment Market Value" (PDF). National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 15, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  5. Office of Institutional Research. (2009). "Faculty". Harvard University Fact Book (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-10-13. ("Unduplicated, Paid Instructional Faculty Count: 2,107. Unduplicated instructional faculty count is the most appropriate count for general reporting purposes.")
  6. "Faculties and Allied Institutions" (PDF). Office of the Provost, Harvard University. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 5, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  7. Sven Beckert; Katherine Stevens; et al. (2011). "Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History" (PDF). Harvard University. pp. 7–8.
  8. Walters, Lindsey (2017). "Slavery and the American university: discourses of retrospective justice at Harvard and Brown". Slavery & Abolition. 38 (4): 719–744. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2017.1309875. S2CID 219698319.
  9. "Harvard's Investments in Southern Africa". The Black Scholar. 3 (5): 25–32. 1972-01-01. doi:10.1080/00064246.1972.11431212. ISSN 0006-4246 – via Taylor & Francis.
  10. "Obama joins list of seven presidents with Harvard degrees". Harvard Gazette. 6 November 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  11. Roberta Frye (August 2, 2023). "Universities with Most Nobel Laureates in the World". Retrieved September 10, 2023.