The Committee has played host to over 200 students most of them from New England and Middle Atlantic schools. On one weekend in the middle of May, some 65 students from the New York-New England area visited the College under the auspices of the New England Associated Harvard Clubs, and directed by the Alumni and Undergraduate Schools Committees.

Joint Statement

In the field of athletic policy, the joint statement made last fall by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton was actually little more than an affirmation of an already existing policy. The statement claims that "all aspects of college athletics are subordinate to the purposes for which the colleges exist and must be controlled by educational considerations...No athletic scholarships or special subsidies of any sort for athletes are given by Harvard, Yale, or Princeton."

An important factor to be considered in the 1951-52 program is the March of Time film, "Invitation to Harvard." This, according to Peter E. Pratt, Director of Alumni Records, is "A terribly effective presentation of what the College is like." Pratt estimates that, while 217 recorded private showings of the film have been held, the actual total--with unrecorded reelings included--is over 400. "Invitation to Harvard" was shown at Harvard Clubs and high schools from London to the Philippines, while Admissions Office assistants, in their tours through various parts of the country, have taken prints with them.

The effect of the vigorous new policy can be seen in the geographical distribution for some recent classes. The Class of 1955, for example, cut down six percent on the number admitted from New England, while the number admitted from Middle Atlantic, Middle West, and Far West areas all rose slightly. Princeton, on the other hand, stepped up the number of New England students from seven percent of 1954 to 27.3 percent of 1955. while cutting rather deeply into most other sections. Nassau authorities conducted a rather extensive campaign in New England to achieve this result, using such means as the Lawrenceville Hockey Tournament.

However, the entire project involves some very grave, if unavoidable, dangers. The question will arise as to whether the new system and the new methods accompanying it is good, or a necessary evil. Some maintain that its value lies in the more or less thorough acouring of the nation's schools to dig up talent that would in previous years have been left uncovered; others feel that the whole affair has a bad smell about it, but that Harvard must compete as fiercely as anyone else. One of the principal questions facing the administrator and the alumni committeeman as well is: Just what does "Balance in the College" mean?

Samuel Eliot Morrison '08 gives perhaps the best definition in his "The Founding of Harvard College":

"As long as Harvard remains true to her early traditions, rich men's son and poor, serious scholars and frivolous wasters, saints and sinners...will meet in her Houses, her Yard, and her athletic fields, rubbing off each others angularicies, and learning from contact what cannot be learned from books."

For one thing, "balance" does no' mean a student body of "all-around boys," a horde of C-minus "good citizens," as Dean Bender phrases it. Harvard's chief consideration is academic superiority and its reputation will automatically attract true scholars. Objective examinations like the College Board scores will further eliminate any academic incompetents. But beyond this solid core of high intelligence, the College seeks a "balance," an undergraduate body with the widest possible range of skills, tastes, and backgrounds. Geographical location is an important factor, and the Committee on Admissions, while weighing grades highest, will then start the selection process in the west and work east. The danger here is that many a fine student from an eastern school may be by-passed for the student from a more distant locale.

The Hucksters

Administrators are confronted with another dilemma: the techniques of advertising, selling. University Hall and most of the men connected with the admissions program have settled upon "low-pressure" salesmanship as the most effective and least obnoxious method of dispelling popular myths about the College, and for counterbalancing poor athletic publicity. Some of the more effective publicity channels have been the March of Time film, which is now being shown commercially, and the University News Office, directed by William M. Pinkerton, which now distributes over 3.900 pieces of mail annually on the activities of students to Harvard Clubs, newspapers, and scholars.

An aggressive admissions policy like those adopted by the Ivy "Big Four" will inevitably lead some people to regard the program as a monstrous athletic-purhasing spree. In their joint statement, however, the presidents of Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. "In order to prevent misunderstanding and misrepresentation," made it quite clear that they are not giving athletic scholarships.

The current athletic scandals, some fear, could bring a reaction against athletes of an extreme sort: after the decade of 1910-20 for example, the University actually discriminated against athletes. On the other hand, others fear that adverse fortunes on the football field might lead to recruiting with a single aim in mind Given three choices abandoning intercollegiate football, as Chicago did, converting to a professional beef trust, or maintaining an amateur policy--the University has chosen the middle course. It will continue the attempt to attract the scholar-athlete, although this attempt may already have been made futile by the rank professionalism existing on today's latercollegiate gridirons.

This intense concern with the near mythical "scholar-athlete" has, however filled some officials with disgust. They are tired of actively seeking after this elusive "glamour-boy" and feel that many a student who doesn't handle a pigskin with an particular adoptness is being ignored and shoved into the shadows.

Intimately connected with the problem of athletes is, of course the scholarship program. Scholarship Director von Stade calls it an "Unhealthy situation" Over 33 percent of the applicants for the Class of 1956 sought scholarship aid. The central problem here is for the Schools Committees to attract more paying guests to ease the burden on Harvard's budget.