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The President's Concluding Report: A Summing-Up and a Glance Ahead

On the Humanities

the basic problem of the Humanities is a spiritual and moral problem. It some of my generation and those older would recognize this fact, we might have less tearful hand wringing about "the fate of the humanities." The truth of the matter is that much of what passes for appreciation of the arts and letters in some circles is a combination of antiquarianism, a collector's instinct, and the old snob appeal of a 'gentleman's education." The academic people who pander to these tastes to my mind do a positive disservice to the humanistic tradition, which is, is fact, the tradition of the continuing triumphs of the creative human spirit.

One boundary of the area we designate as that of spiritual values is formed by the imaginative creations of the poet, the dramatist, the artist, and the musician. The writings of historians form still another. Yet because we all recognize how difficult it is to get even a glimpse of what historical personages really felt and thought, we turn to literature as the medium for communicating ideas about the spiritual life of individuals....

Conceived in this way rather than as a battlefield for the cognoscenti, old and young, the humanities are central to a general college education. It is my conviction that may of the younger members of the Harvard staff, particularly those interested in the General Education. program, see the matter in just this light. For this reason I believe the future of the humanities at Harvard is certain to be bright.

On Academic Independence

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Among the reasons for this change is the popular attitude towards institutions of higher education is the failure of colleges by their collective action to demonstrate the nature of their primary task. For example, the public entertainment business in which almost all of us are engaged has become so competitive as to generate public scandals. (Let us remember Harvard was the first college to build a stadium, and if President Lowell had not stood steadfast against alumni pressure, we would have today a giant stadium built in the gay twenties on borrowed money.) Another reason, perhaps, for public suspicion of the colleges is the special position they have occupied under the Selective Service Act as this has been administered. A group of college presidents of whom I was one proposed in early 1951 that a universal military service law be enacted; but this suggestion was not followed by the Defense department and Congress. Instead Selective Service promulgated regulations which were designed to keep the colleges full of students and give in fact total exemptions to most scientists and engineers.... But by and large it has been the boy who was not able to go to college whose family has had to mourn. It is obvious that such a policy does not make for national unity...

Conclusion

Today once again we live in a period of peril, far greater peril to my mind than many of us appear to realize. The prospect of the physical annihilation of all of Harvard is for the first time in our history a possibility that we must admit. The destruction of the spiritual premises on which our whole tradition rests is likewise a possibility that no one can deny who recalls the fate of the University in Prague. To prevent such possibilities' becoming in fact realities is the problem that we face collectively and individually. Each one of us must asses the situation personally and guide his course accordingly.

How to serve a free nation at a time of partial mobilization, how to reconcile the essential tradition of dissent with the need for national unity in the face of danger-these are the major problems now facing this ancient community of scholars. These problems were undreamed of in 1933. They will be history two decades hence. What their solution may be is not for me to say. But I conclude this report with the strong conviction that short of a global war, the universities of this nation will be even more significant in 1973 than they are today. As vital centers of sound learning, as strongpoints defending individualized liberty, as communities of creative thinkers, on industrialized democracy can do without them: each year will demonstrate their indispensability to this society of free men.

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