But little was done to change the relationship. Research in the Health School continued to mushroom rapidly. With the arrival of World War II, a heavy burden fell on the school. Any reorganization had to be shelved in the face of increased research for the war effort. Under the auspices of the Army public health program, the school played a major role investigating new health problems. With the end of hostilities, Harvard saw a pressing need for specialists and adapted itself to cope with a world torn by destruction. Reorganization plans were taken down, dusted off, and put to use. The break with the Medical School was completed and the revitalized School of Public Health began.

Like many another graduate schools Public Health soon found that finances were headaches which threatened to curb ambitious plans. An initial grant of $1,000,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation and special funds from the Corporation gave it an initial send-off. (The Rockefeller money runs out in 1956.) But they were only temporary boosts, incapable of sustaining research and planning for years ahead.

Long-Range Expansion

Under Dean James Simmons, appointed in 1946 after serving as Chief of Preventive Medicine for the Army during World War II, the school planned long-range expansion. Departments were to be enlarged, faculty increased, and more students admitted. But only with more money could such schemes go into effect.

A momentary answer was found in temporary, short-term grants for special research from private foundations, industry, and the government. Professors continued working on many projects begun during the war, while several special jobs designed specifically for industry got under way.

With the jump in lab work, the school expanded its facilities, acquiring the old Huntington Avenue Cancer Hospital which it turned over to the Departments of Nutrition, Microbiology, and Epidemiology. But this expansion did not adequately meet pressing demands for more space. The demands have not yet been met. No one is more aware of their cramped quarters than the professors themselves. But they only smile when someone suggests enlarging them. "What for?" they ask. "We would only fill up that space too."

Grants Run Low

Grants are constantly running out. To provide for what may be a serious financial situation, the Dean, with former Massachusetts Governor Bradford, has launched a stabilization and consolidation program. They are aiming for $12,000,000. If plans run according to schedule, they will use this money to construct a seven story annex to the school's main building. Part of it will go towards establishing a more permanent endowment fund. And the rest, with other ten-year grants, will build on the school's program to assure life tenure for senior faculty members.

But most of the school's finances still rests on short-term grants. Seventy-one percent of last year's budget came this way. Government money helps more than the Dean likes to admit. "If it were not for government aid," he says, "this school and many like it would have folded long ago."

The budget difficulties affect the faculty where it hurts--in the pocket book. Young professors come with no assurance that they will be carried from one June to the next. Assistant Professors are not granted life tenures because the salary money does not exist. Actually the school cannot guarantee positions for more than five or ten years in the future. They plan for the future, hope for the future, but can do nothing definite until their budget is on a more stable footing. It is like a runner who hurdles a wide hole confident that he will land on the other side. Public Health today vaguely hopes the other side is there.

Instability

Many instructors arrive with the understanding that they must support themselves and their departments by securing grants from outside sources. Worry over how their work is going to be done, and whether industries will be in a generous mood to assist them next year haunts these professors. It cuts into experiment time and curbs the school's effectiveness. Lack of endowment has given Public Health an unhealthy sense of instability. Even small grants must be turned down because of limited time and space.

Yet the mystery of Public Health is its vitality. The school hums with activity. The answer may be that men who might normally relax, secure that they have a job for life, are out hustling to get funds to carry on their research.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. And the proof that Harvard has not yet been seriously hurt by budget troubles is the number of qualified students and professors who flock to the school every year. They come with new ideas for experiments--kept current to meet the demands of new public health problems. Many of the younger men at one time or another have been offered jobs outside the school with a hike in salary, yet they have refused to leave Harvard. Most are confident that the school will soon solve its financial worries.

High Overhead