$6,000,000 Single Gift
Alone Baker gave the School grounds as excellent as those of any other graduate school in the country; his funds bought every permanent building that now stands across the river, including Baker Library. In 1925 he added an extra $1,000,000 to his gift when it appeared the original $5,000,000 was going to run out, and in 1948 an additional $500,000 was received from Baker's estate to keep facilities up to date. Still another sum was given by the Baker family last year in connection with the drive to match the Rockefeller $5,000,000.
Not waiting for the completion of the buildings, Dean Donham had meanwhile been working on the second goal, that of "expanding laboratory facilities." By 1927, the grounds were dedicated, eight intensive years of visiting business plants had blossomed into almost 6,000 case studies. School researchers since then have kept the case stocks "active."
During this period of the 'twenties and 'thirties, meanwhile, Dean Donham was putting into play many of the ideas that observers today credit with establishing business as a true "profession" rather than a mere set of specialized skills. Donham advanced the notion of business education as a broad "education for leadership," and under him, Harvard took steps to integrate and balance the program taken by every student.
By the start of World War II, degrees awarded (starting with the 33 given out in 1910) had reached the total of 7,757. Donham remained the dean until 1942, when, at the advise of his physician, he turned the position over to Dean David, then the president of American Maize.
During the war, the school cut out all degree awards in order to serve as a training center for Navy supply and Air Force statistics personnel. In addition, 500 business men further crowded the school for War Industry Training and Advanced Management programs. The latter innovation is the same program that continues twice a year today, and another current program, the Trade Union Fellowships, also take its root from this wartime period.
After the war, the school curriculum was again reshaped; simultaneously the topics of Dean David's annual reports began to indicate that the "Donham doctrine" of education for leadership had posed several unanswered questions basic to the school.
David's Ten Years
David discussed such points as how can schools train successful administrators; train successful enterprisers; teach human relations; and relate business teaching to the existing social and economic climate? As an indication that Harvard is still not sure of the answers, the school only this spring tightened the second year program by requiring more coordinating or "institutional" courses.
Another main problem facing Dean David today is the school's $20,000,000 future expansion blueprint. Thanks to the unexpected receipt of $12,000,000 in so short a time, much of the "long-range" nature of the program has vanished. And if School officials can now realize their hopes of raising $200,000 yearly from the alumni, the school will go beyond its new classroom building and activities center and will soon also have enough funds to increase scholarships and provide an adequate endowment for research and instruction.
Dean David hopes to build a $3,000,000 scholarship fund that will guarantee "instruction to the county's best-qualified young men without being limited to those fortunate enough to have been born into high-income families."
One final worry of Dean David today is, of course, the war situation. Any full-scale mobilization of the nation would probably mean the resumption of large wartime training programs at the School for the armed forces. Already the school has entered the national defense effort by establishing a center for war mobilization research and assigning 15 members of its faculty to the project. The school is further contributing its facilities this fall by accepting a group of 50 military officers for study here.
'Faculty Could Be Dissipated'
But "business as usual" must at the moment remain the school's main concern, Dean David told a mass meeting of the student body last December, David said he himself had declined a government post and added that there is an increasing demand on the part of Washington agencies for Business School personnel. "Within months or weeks, the faculty could be dissipated," he warned.
For the present, however, the dean emphasized, "Everything warrants our carrying on." He said school officials had conferred with the State, Defense, and Commerce departments, and the result of the talks was the impression everywhere in Washington: "It is important that the Business School keep going."