In a little group of offices in Weld Hall a little group of men and women are engaged in running a $375,000 business--a business which may see the College out of one of its toughest financial spots in 316 years. The Bureau of Student Employment--which is what the offices comprise--last spring under-went an explosive change in personnel and a perceptable shift in policy, but is now clearly on the way to becoming one of the College's key agencies.

The reason for the importance of the Office is the continuing high cost of a Harvard education coupled with a decrease in scholarship money. In the past ten years the cost of going to Harvard has risen by 51 percent while income from scholarship endowment has gone up only 17 percent. Without some sort of financial aid a Harvard education has become virtually impossible for many student. Faced with the decline in scholarship money the College had a choice of two things--turning down students who could not pay their own way or finding new sources of financial aid. The College took the latter alternative, and student employment became a vital part in keeping Harvard a college for men of ability, not wealth.

In March 1950, creation of a Financial Aid Center to integrate scholarships, employment, and loans was announced. At its head was placed John U. Monro '34, assistant to the Provost and Counsellor for veterans. Monro was known around the University as a determined, efficient man who had had a good bit of experience in dealing with students financial problems.

It was Monro's job, as Provost Buck said at the time, to free our students from financial worries," mainly by setting up a body which could take care of monetary troubles in a number of ways.

Monro did not take long to go into action. It was he who provided most of the impetus for the precedent-breaking student porter plan (see below). And last spring John W. Holt was released as director of Student Employment and replaced by Graham R. Taylor '49 amidst rumors of policy clashes, especially about favoritism to athletes.

Holt Silent on Switch

Even now it is hard to tell exactly what was behind the switchover. Holt, at present working in New York at a higher salary for a personnel consultant firm, refuses to talk about what happened. Monro is also taciturn but declares that there was no question of policy involved. Except for the fact that Taylor, in his previous job as assistant to the director of admissions, had been quite busy in getting qualified athletes to come to Harvard, charges about policy battles seem unfounded.

Disagreements on matters other than top policy may have caused the split. Sources close to the office say that some University officials thought Holt was running the office in too informal a manner, and that, on the other hand, he was spending too much time on record-keeping. In any event, this year secretaries in the office are discouraged from eating on the job, and records of the amount earned on small jobs are no longer kept.

The general feeling among people who spend a lot of time around the Office is that this year it is working a great deal more closely with the Financial Aid Center than ever before. Cooperation between the two departments is at a new high.

This should not be very surprising, Graham Taylor is a product of post-war University thinking which links the problems of admissions and financial aid as inseparable. He has had experience "riding the circuit" through Western cities in an effort to get the fabled "All-Around Boy" and the sought-after "Scholar-Athlete" to come to Harvard. He has continued to do it this year, and there are those who say it takes too much of his time.

Student Security

Nevertheless, he has a good background in the spirit currently prevailing around University Hall. "We don't want to have to turn down any boy for admissions because he won't have enough money to pay his bills," he says. "We want boys to be able to come to Harvard secure in the knowledge that they will have well-paying jobs when they get here."

To achieve this goal the Office of Student Employment, mostly under pressure provided by the far-reaching Monro, has evolved the totally new student porter plan. Still in its experimental phase, the porter plan is now giving steady employment at 80 cents an hour for approximately 70 men. If successful, the porter scheme will enable the Office to give incoming freshmen assurance that they will get needed jobs.

"If successful" is a big if. Reports are constantly coming into Taylor's and Monro's offices from the dormitories where the plan is in operation. For the most part, all concerned emphasize, the students whose rooms are being cleaned by porters have made no more complaints than those who have maid service.

Alan H. Masters '52, a porter captain in Dunster House, says, "We're getting fewer complaints than we expected. One reason for this is the dally spot checks we make in various entries in the House. Most men realize the importance of the jobs we are providing and are quite considerate. Only two or three have what might be called an instinctive dislike of students cleaning their rooms."