Below are presented excerpts from retiring President James BryantConant's twentieth and last Annual Report:

The Present Struggle

We have witnessed, I am afraid, only the first phase of a basic conflict that may well last for the balance of this century; though I hasten to add that I am not one of those pessimists who see either World War III or the defeat of the free nations as the only alternative outcomes of this conflict. I believe we can and will avoid an atomic global holocaust and given time, courage and patience, that the tradition of dissent and freedom will prove to be a better guide for a heavily industrialized society than totalitarian communism." ... The next ten years, if they bring neither World War II nor peace will be in a sense a continuation of that long period of trial for the university tradition which started when Hitler came to power in Germany.

A Stable Faculty

...except in a period of great expansion there is little hope of building a distinguished faculty unless there is a long range plan for continual recruitment of the most promising oung men. And as the most promising young men. And as for expansion, this would be possible on a sound basis in a college like Harvard, which does not wish to enlarge its student body, only it the income from endowment increased markedly...that this is unlikely to occur in the immediate future has seemed to me quite clear. That is the reason why I have resisted in the last few years many demands from certain members of the Faculty of Arts and sciences to take advantage of temporary grants from foundations of government contracts to well the ranks of the faculty. Against such inflationary pressures, such deficit financing,--for it is i essence exactly that-may I once again warn the Governing Board.

On Government Research

The Government research money that we are spending is as free from restrictions as to publication of results as the usual grant from a foundation. Without it the research of many of our most distinguished professors in the natural sciences would be severely restricted. As long as the proportion of such funds of other temporary grants is not too large, and as long as the inflationary pressure of such money does not jeopardize a sound personnel policy, I see few dangers in this form of Federal subsidy. But each dean and budgetary officer is well aware of the precautious nature of governmental support and is ready to cut back the expenditures in any research project or laboratory when the support fails.

On Admissions Policy

... to inform the potential applicants in far away communities about Harvard College is one of the urgent tasks that lie ahead. Whether this can be done with the cooperation of alumni groups without turning the whole effort into a vast recruitment campaign for football players may be doubted by some cynics. But knowing something of the spirit of the Harvard graduates and their scale of values. I have confidence that it will be done ... in no single matter can the alumni of the Eastern colleges perform a greater service for their own institutions and for the future of higher education than by balancing the spirit of rivalry in athletics with an insistence that each college be judged primarily by its services to the nation as an educational institution.

On the Design School

The most drastic change in any school or department has occurred in what was the School of Architecture and is now the School of Design. A new dean appointed a few years attar I took office soon introduced new professors and a totally new outlook. This radical departure from traditional architectural and architectural instruction had first to maintain itself against heavy conservative pressures from outside. But before long others followed our lead; what eighteen years ago was a startling novelty is now accepted as basic doctrine in all architectural schools in the United state.

Fund for Medical Education

The National Fund for Medical Education which is now golociting money from industrial companies, is the most premising answer to a serious deterioration in medical education. Indeed. Substantial supper from industry by one method or another appears the only solution, that is unless one contemplates a permanent Federal subsidy with all the difficulties and problems such a subsidy would bring.

On Tutorial

When Mr. Lowell introduced the tutorial system forty years ago, I feel certain he expected it to drive out the "course system." This has not occurred: indeed, exactly the opposite has taken place; new courses have proliferated to a degree that seems absurd. American professors, old and young, like to give courses (and so do I, I must admit). Few care to do tutorial work after the first dozen years. Since no other American college has adopted a tutorial system (to me a significant fact), experience in tutorial work is not considered useful as a preparation for employment elsewhere.