Highlights of the Academic Year 2001-02

Opening Address at the HEAA Banquet June 4, 2002

by Dean Michael Shinagel

Dean Michael Shinagel

This evening is special to me because it marks the first Harvard Extension Alumni Association (HEAA) banquet in 16 years that I don't stand before you in a dual capacity: as dean of the Harvard Extension School and as master of Quincy House. After 15 years of service as master of Quincy House, I realized that I was eligible for parole, and I am pleased to report that my wife Marjorie and I seized the opportunity to return to a normal life--"far from the madding crowd" of 500 Harvard undergraduates, graduate tutors, and faculty residents who constituted our extended family, at times functional, often dysfunctional, for all those years. How do we like normal life? Like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "let me count the ways"--but not now, not tonight.

My only regret about leaving the Quincy mastership is that we no longer could enjoy the ambiance of the Masters' roof garden for our HEAA cocktail hour and the amenities of the Quincy Dining Hall for our banquet. Since we have numbered among this year's ALB graduates Mark Petrino, the Quincy Dining Hall manager, there is every likelihood that we may return to Quincy House for our HEAA banquet next June. For now we are fortunate to be at the Sheraton Commander Hotel for what promises to be another memorable evening for the HEAA banquet. So tonight is special to me in that I welcome you all solely in my capacity as dean of the Harvard Extension School, in this my 27th year in that role.

This year marks the 92nd anniversary of the Harvard Extension School and the 34th anniversary of the HEAA. I can report with pride that this year's Harvard Extension School Class of 2002 constitutes one of the largest and most distinguished classes in our history. On Thursday we will award a total of 235 Extension degrees and a total of 313 graduate certificates for a grand total of 548 new members of the HEAA. More than 70 percent of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts (ALB) degree recipients will graduate cum laude. This year we are graduating the youngest ALB recipient in the history of the Harvard Extension School. Amit Chatterjee of Brookline, Massachusetts, began his studies six years ago at age 12 and on Thursday he will receive his ALB at age 18. He is going on for a Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in history and doubtless will become the youngest ALM recipient as well.

The HEAA has also shown robust growth in recent years. When it was formed in 1968, the HEAA served as the alumni(ae) parent organization for 300 members. I am informed that we now have 9,233 alumni(ae) of the Harvard Extension School. With the addition of this year's graduates, membership in the HEAA will be approaching the magic number of 10,000.

A noteworthy event occurred in March of this year when the Harvard Overseers Committee came to review the Division of Continuing Education in general and the Harvard Extension School in particular. It was their first visit in seven years, and we prepared a detailed Self-Study Report of more than 50 pages for the members of the Visiting Committee, which included academic specialists in continuing education (deans, associate provosts, and vice presidents) as well as presidents of colleges and universities. Our self-study focused on developments in the Harvard Extension School in the past seven years as well as projections into the future on such central topics as distance education and internationalization.

A traditional feature of the Harvard Extension School mission has been to "develop innovative courses and teaching techniques that enhance the learning of adult students." This has involved the introduction of new technology both to improve the learning process and to deliver courses to "distance students" locally, nationally, and internationally. The Harvard Extension School pioneered courses via educational television in the 1950s with WGBH and then to US Navy personnel (via kinescopes on nuclear submarines) in the 1960s.

In the past six years we have expanded our distance courses significantly, from a handful at the outset to 31 this year, including three Harvard College courses. Although most of the courses were in the field of computer science, we also offered courses in biology, environmental management, Greek literature, philosophy, government, and museum studies. We received a grant from the Harvard Provost's Office in the amount of $200,000 to support this innovative educational initiative in the years ahead.

The key programs in the Harvard Extension School that deal with international students are the Certificate of Special Studies in Administration and Management (CSS) and the Institute for English Language Programs (IEL). In recent years the number of international students in CSS courses has increased steadily, growing from 25 percent in 1995-96 to 35 percent in 2000-01. Since international students come to complete the CSS in one academic year, they take eight courses, which is much greater than their American counterparts. This accounts for their larger percentage of CSS enrollments: up from 42 percent in 1995-96 to 54 percent in 2000-01. Likewise, the number of international CSS candidates and graduates has grown dramatically, reaching 70 percent in recent years. Indeed, from 1995 to 2001 the CSS Program produced graduates from 74 foreign countries. The leading countries producing CSS graduates were Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, and Spain.

As a footnote, I might mention the case of Alvaro Uribe Velez, who graduated from the CSS Program in 1993. He wrote on his application that "I hope to play a very important role in the political life of my country." Last week he was elected President of Colombia--the country, not the university!

Similarly, our IEL Program in the Harvard Extension School reports that students in recent years represented more than 80 countries from every continent and many an archipelago, with Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and Colombia having the largest number.

I am pleased to note that the report of the Visiting Committee praised our self-study and gave the Harvard Extension School high marks for our successes in distance education and internationalization as well as our record of service since our founding by Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell in 1909. The Harvard Extension School has given collegiate and graduate instruction to more than 400,000 women and men in its nine decades of operation, but, as I note at each Commencement, "many are called but few are chosen" in that only about 10,000 of more than 400,000 actually have earned Harvard Extension School degrees and certificates. That puts all of you in very select company, and on behalf of the Harvard Extension School faculty and staff, I congratulate this year's graduates and salute the returning alumni(ae) on your academic achievement.

In closing, I extend to one and all, best wishes for continued success, health, happiness, and a dedication to the proposition that "learning never ends."