View source for Harvard University

{{Infobox university
| name = Harvard University
| image  = Harvard 1740 by William Burgis.jpg
| caption = The university in 1740
| motto = ''Veritas''<ref>Appearing as it does on the coat of arms itself, ''Veritas'' is not a motto in the usual [[heraldry|heraldic]] sense. Properly speaking, rather, Harvard's [http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~gsascf/shield.html original motto is ''Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae'' ("Truth for Christ and the Church")] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702181526/http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~gsascf/shield.html |date=2010-07-02 }} as shown on [http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/55900/55996/55996_harvard_seal.htm Harvard's original shield] or [[seal (device)|seal]]. This legend is otherwise not used today.</ref>
| established = 1636<ref name=founding>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 (1859–1919)|Josiah Quincy]] at the bicentennial). Sources: meeting dates, {{Cite book|first=Josiah|last=Quincy|title=History of Harvard University|url=https://archive.org/details/historyharvardu00quingoog|year=1860|publisher=Crosby, Nichols, Lee and Co.|location=117 Washington Street, Boston|isbn=9780405100161 }}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KynqxH_4lGUC&pg=RA1-PA586 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: {{Cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,756722,00.html|date=1936-09-28|accessdate=2006-09-08|publisher=Time Magazine|title=Cambridge Birthday|archive-date=2012-12-05|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121205054221/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0%2C8816%2C756722%2C00.html|url-status=dead}}: "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: {{Cite web|url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/10.02/02-history.html|publisher=Harvard University|title=Harvard Gazette: This Month in Harvard History|date=2003-09-02|accessdate=2006-09-15|author=Marvin Hightower|archive-date=2006-09-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908144409/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/10.02/02-history.html|url-status=dead}}, "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."</ref>
| mottoeng = Truth
| type = [[Private university|Private]]
| endowment = [[United States dollar|US $]]40.9 [[1000000000 (number)|billion]]<ref name="Harvard Management Company">{{cite web|last=Mendillo|first=Jane L.|title=September 2011 Harvard Management Company Endowment Report|url=http://www.hmc.harvard.edu/docs/Sept%2021%20Draft-Annual%20Report.pdf|publisher=Harvard Management Company|accessdate=23 September 2011}}{{Dead link|date=January 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
<ref name="NACUBO"/>
| president = 
| students = 21,225
| undergrad = 7,181 total<br />6,655 College<br />526 Extension
| postgrad = 14,044
| staff = 2,497 non-medical<br />10,674 medical
| faculty = 2,107<ref>{{Cite book|last=Office of Institutional Research.|title=Harvard University Fact Book|year=2009|chapter=Faculty|url=http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_09_18-19facuni.pdf|access-date=2011-10-13|archive-date=2012-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425050912/http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_09_18-19facuni.pdf|url-status=dead}} ("Unduplicated, Paid Instructional Faculty Count: 2,107. Unduplicated instructional faculty count is the most appropriate count for general reporting purposes.")</ref>
| city = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]]
| state = [[Massachusetts]]
| country = [[United States|U.S.]]
| campus = [[Urban area|Urban]]<br />{{convert|210|acre|ha}} (Main campus)<br />{{convert|22|acre|ha}} (Medical campus)<br/>{{convert|359|acre|ha}} (Allston campus)<ref name="Campus"/>
| athletics = 41 Varsity Teams<br />[[Ivy League|Ivy&nbsp;League]]<br />[[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] [[Division I (NCAA)|Division I]]
| colors = [[Crimson]] {{color box|#991122}}
| free_label = Newspaper
| free = ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]''
| nickname = [[Harvard Crimson]]
| website = [http://www.harvard.edu/ harvard.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.<ref>{{cite web
|url= http://www.harvardandslavery.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Harvard-Slavery-Book-111110.pdf
|title= Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History
|author=  Sven Beckert |author2=Katherine Stevens |display-authors=etal
|date= 2011
|pages= 7–8
|publisher= Harvard University 
|accessdate=
}}</ref>  Also, “Harvard students slept in beds and ate meals prepared by slaves, and many grew up to be prominent slave-holders in early America."<ref>{{cite journal
|last1= Walters 
|first1=Lindsey 
|year= 2017
|title= Slavery and the American university: discourses of retrospective justice at Harvard and Brown
|journal=  Slavery & Abolition
|volume= 38
|issue= 4
|pages= 719–744
|doi= 10.1080/0144039X.2017.1309875
|s2cid=219698319 
|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264665 
}}</ref> In the 20th century, the university invested millions of dollars in [[apartheid]] South Africa.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1972-01-01|title=Harvard's Investments in Southern Africa|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.1972.11431212|journal=The Black Scholar|volume=3|issue=5|pages=25–32|doi=10.1080/00064246.1972.11431212|issn=0006-4246|via=Taylor & Francis}}</ref>

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 [[Rapid transit|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 rink]]s 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 [[President (United States)|Presidents of the United States]] have [[graduation|graduated]] from Harvard.<ref>{{Cite web|date=6 November 2008|title=Obama joins list of seven presidents with Harvard degrees|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/11/obama-joins-list-of-seven-presidents-with-harvard-degrees/|access-date=13 March 2024|website=Harvard Gazette|language=en-US}}</ref> Harvard has over $40 billion. There have been 161 Nobel Laureates from Harvard University.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://oatuu.org/universities-with-most-nobel-laureates-in-the-world/|title=Universities with Most Nobel Laureates in the World|author=Roberta Frye|date=August 2, 2023|accessdate=September 10, 2023}}</ref>

==Notable alumni==
* [[John Adams]], 2nd [[President of the United States]]
* [[George W. Bush]], 43rd President of the United States
* [[Bill Gates]], Founder of [[Microsoft]]
* [[Al Gore]], 45th [[Vice President of the United States]]
* [[John F. Kennedy]], 35th President of the United States
* [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]], 32nd President of the United States
* [[Theodore Roosevelt]], 26th President of the United States
* [[Natalie Portman]], Actress & filmmaker
* [[Mark Zuckerberg]], Founder & CEO of [[Facebook]]
*[[Barack Obama]], 44th President of the United States

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="NACUBO">{{cite web|url=http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2011NCSEPublicTablesEndowmentMarketValues319.pdf|title=U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2011 Endowment Market Value|publisher=National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute|accessdate=October 29, 2012|archive-date=September 15, 2012|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120915211940/http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2011NCSEPublicTablesEndowmentMarketValues319.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Campus">{{cite web|url=http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_FB2009_10_Sec03_4_Plant.pdf|title=Faculties and Allied Institutions|year=2009|publisher=Office of the Provost, Harvard University|accessdate=August 27, 2010|archive-date=September 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905162014/http://www.provost.harvard.edu/institutional_research/Provost_-_FB2009_10_Sec03_4_Plant.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}

{{Ivy League}}
{{ECAC Hockey}}

[[Category:Association of American Universities]]
[[Category:Collegiate Water Polo Association]]
[[Category:ECAC Hockey]]
[[Category:Harvard University| ]]
[[Category:Ivy League]]
[[Category:Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1636 establishments]]
[[Category:1630s establishments in Massachusetts]]