• MISSION
• CLASSACT HR73 @50 VIDEO PROJECT
• REUNION SYMPOSIA:
  • REINVENTING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
  • FROM CHARLES RIVER TO HALF-EARTH: 50 YEARS
• BENAZIR BHUTTO LEADERSHIP PROGRAM FUNDRAISING FOR REUNION

Mission

At our 40th reunion, members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of ’73 launched an initiative devoted to the principle that it’s not too late to change the world. While the impulse and the language describing it evoke the times in which HR73 came to maturity, that brief manifesto has now proven a guide to activism across multiple classes and generations. So, what spirit drives us?

In a time of national and global strife and distrust in institutions, professional expertise, and truth itself, ClassACTors share and apply the experience that our education, community, and collective energy have put within our reach. We know that we are blessed with opportunities that many envy and all should have. We believe that education underwrites human flourishing, not just a daily wage; that a diverse and inclusive community is more than the sum of its parts, not an invitation to chaos; that inquiry and imagination set the first, essential steps towards a new and better life for all if we have the wisdom to embrace them.

As our 50th reunion nears, we come together beyond Harvard Yard to build on the best of our institutional heritage and do together what none of us alone could hope to accomplish. With humility, energy, and empathy, we seek to pay our past advantages forward. It is indeed, “not too late to change the world!”

Sign up and get involved here!

ClassACT HR73 @50 Video Project

Click above to view all the classmate videos!

Over the past several months, with Rick Brotman ‘73 at the helm, ClassACT HR73 is creating a series of videos illustrating the stories of how our classmates are working towards positive change in their communities, the nation and the world.

If you would like to be interviewed about a project you are doing or an organization you are affiliated with, please fill out this form and someone from the ClassACT HR73 team will get back to you. Let’s celebrate the work we’ve been doing to change the world!

Reunion Symposia:

Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century

Where: 50th Reunion--Sanders Theatre, Harvard University

Thursday, June 1st, 9:00am - 10:15am

Presentation by: Danielle Allen

Moderator: E. J. Dionne

Panelists: Roger Ferguson, Al Franken, Bill Kristol, Patti Saris

The 75-minute symposium will feature a presentation by Harvard professor Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, Director of Harvard’s Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics, and Co-Chair of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences initiative, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, which proposes specific recommendations and reforms to insure our democracy. (Summary below) Link to full report: : Our Common Purpose | American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org), followed by a discussion by the panel and Prof. Allen led by E. J. Dionne.

From the Charles River to Half-Earth: 50 Years 

When: Thursday, June 1, 10:30am-11:45am -- Sanders Theatre, Harvard University

Convenor: John Kress

Participants: Jesse Ausubel, John Adams, Kimball Chen, Lindsay Clarkson, Robert Dreher, Henrietta Wigglesworth Lodge, Michael Mayer, Ann MacKinnon, Roger Myerson, Sharon Tisher

As undergrads we associated the Charles River and Boston Harbor with tetanus and sewage. Jesse Ausubel will report on surprisingly diverse and abundant aquatic life discovered in a slurp of water wit hmodern genomics near the Boat House and USS Constitution and look back nostalgically on the fear of falling of a shell, raft or dinghy.

John Kress will then lead a conversation among classmates engaged in the ClassACT HR73 Environment and Climate Change Working group. The late Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, in his 2016 book Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, proposed the designation of half of Earth’s surface, both terrestrial and marine, as a natural reserve to safeguard the remaining biodiversity of the planet. With participants’  backgrounds in environment, law, government, medicine, business, and academics, discussion will focus on action that can be taken through ratification of international biodiversity treaties and local to global land trusts as vehicles for species and ecosystem protection.

BBLP Fundraising for Reunion 

The Benazir Bhutto Fellowship Program needs additional funding. You can help keep bringing these potential leaders of the Muslim world to Cambridge by designating a portion of your 50^th reunion gift for the Bhutto Fellowship fund. 

The fellowship brings outstanding mid-career professionals from predominantly Muslim countries to the Harvard Kennedy School for its one-year master’s program.  These emerging leaders are committed to advancing the core principles that Benazir Bhutto stood for: democracy, equality for women, reconciliation of religious and cultural differences, and education without religious or cultural bias.

If you have questions about giving to the Bhutto Fellowship Fund, please contact classmate George Putnam, gputnam@turnarounds.com, or Abby Fischer of the Harvard College Fund, abby_fischer@harvard.edu.