The resignation of William I. Nichols as director of the University News Office will be a matter for deep regret not only to the press correspondents and the officers of the University who come into daily contact with the News Office, but to all those who value Harvard's reputation in the public eye. Mr. Nichols was the first of a long line of publicity directors to conceive of his position as something more than a buffer to a supersensitive group of officials in University Hall. The value to the University of having a man handle its publicity who enjoys the confidence of the organs through which that publicity is disseminated, is too obvious to need emphasis. Mr. Nichols won that confidence in the face of a natural antagonism, and a long tradition that the Secretary for Information was really a secretary for the suppression of information. His work resulted in Harvard's enjoying a more favorable press than it had enjoyed in years.

The position of director of publicity of any university, to say nothing of a very conservative university such as Harvard, is bound to be a difficult one. For the academic temperament and the journalistic temperament are not such as to harmonize naturally without the interposition of a great deal of tact on the part of some one. The average professor or university bureaucrat resents any interference by the press in what he regards as his private business. The press, on the other hand, resents a policy of secretiveness and an attempt to conceal information which any semi-public institution like a university might be expected to make available.

In choosing Mr. Nichols' successor, President Conant will do well to consider the diverse qualifications needed by a Harvard publicity director. If he is interested primarily in getting more national recognition for Harvard's achievements in research, he will do well to avoid the mistake of getting an able man and then denying him the confidence and authority essential to the accomplishment of his purpose. Furthermore, he will do well to remember that a great part of the publicity director's time is of necessity taken up by routine contacts with the local newspapers. Despite the best efforts of Mr. Nichols, there has been a tendency since President Conant's inauguration for a certain friction to arise between the Administration and the press. To allow a return of the spirit of antagonism which prevailed in other days would be to forfeit an advantage won only with much labor and much tact.