The Global Economy in Turbulent Times

CHAPTER 97 375 Years and Still Number One¹

The year 1636, the first liberal arts college was founded in the British American Colonies, known simply as the College at Cambridge. It was renamed Harvard College three years later after a young Puritan minister endowed it with one-half of his estate and all 400 of his books. The College was already 140 years old when the Colonies became the United States. It commenced 375 years ago with just a dozen young scholars.

Today, Harvard has been transformed into a world-class research-based university, with a full-time enrollment of close to 20,000, where more than 13,000 attend its 12 world-famous branded graduate schools. Harvard has a very large global presence—about 25 percent of its 320,000 alumni are overseas. I was just there, invited to participate at the close of a year of commemorating Harvard’s 375th birthday.

It ended with commencement (or what the British call convocation) on May 24, when 7,500 were conferred degrees for academic excellence. I also attended the traditional summer meeting of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Council (a member since 1993 and its chairman, 2003–2005), at the end of which the 2012 Centennial Medals were presented to four distinguished alumni scholars—for contributions to society as they have emerged from one’s graduate education at Harvard.

Rites of Passage

To celebrate commencement, Harvard reaches back through the centuries to recall some of its time-honored—and, quaintly curious—graduation ...