When the visiting committees of Overseers make their yearly inspections of the College, there is an understandable curiosity among the departments as to what the committees will find to criticize. The Economics Department faces these reports with a bit more equanimity, however. For years the committee studied the Economics faculty and operation carefully and for years they have arrived at the same conclusions. The Department, is, the reports run, badly planned, unbalanced toward the political left in the beliefs of its professors, and too free with leaves of absence.

And when the report is published, the Economics Department men read it, discuss it, and go ahead as they were planning to. The Overseers certainly have the power to investigate the College, but their conclusions can be adopted, ignored, or rejected. The procedures followed by the governing bodies of Harvard since the seventeenth century linger on, but the power within the College has shifted drastically over the years. What the Corporation, Overseers, Faculty, and Administration could do is quite different from what goes on in practice.

The Corporation could, for example, assert itself on educational policy, but Corporation members would be the first to admit that they are not best fitted for academic decisions. The power lies with the Corporation but there has grown such an iron tradition of non-interference that its exercise is now sharply limited. Again, on paper, the Overseers could be rigorous in their supervision of the Corporation and the Administration. But in the twentieth century, the Overseers are more la pressure group than real authorities in the College government.

The Faculty, too, while holding the final word on matters of education, have delegated the responsibilities and now serve primarily as a ratifying body.

Confidence from Watchdogs

Dean Acheson was not far from the mark when he observed, speaking of the six months when Harvard was recently without a President, "We at New Haven have, of course, followed closely the recent meetings, at Cambridge when that most touchy of maneuvers--the transmission of power in a dictatorship--was accomplished."

Let this ironic description, coined at a Harvard-Yale dinner last fall be taken too seriously, it must be stressed that the strong powers which the Administration undoubtedly possesses can be exercised only because the President and his Dean have won the confidence of their watchdog groups. Yet once there is this basic confidence, the Administration is able to battle for its programs and can generally finesse opposition.

Through the College Charters, Statutes, and rulings, runs also that fragile thread of personalities and human relationships which can keep the warp of the Corporation interwoven harmoniously with the woof of the Faculty. When this thread is snapped, as it has been occasionally, the result is revolt and hostility.

The Administration includes the President, his Provost or Dean of the Faculty, and the dean cry of University Hall. Within this framework there can be wide variation: President Lowell believed in autocratic government and his years were almost a reign. President Conant, with his frequent absences and an expanding student body, preferred to delegate authority, and he set up the positions of Administrative Vice-President and Provost. The Vice-President, Edward R. Reynolds, is charged with the administration of budgets and working with treasurer Paul Cabot on financial policy. Provost Paul H. Buck was Dean of the Faculty, with added jurisdiction over libraries and museums. President Pusey retained the Vice-Presidency and its incumbent, but the Provost's position is again Dean of the Faculty, with McGeorge Bundy in the job.

Perhaps the most telling way to show the checks and balances between the governing bodies of Harvard, and the resulting pre-eminence of the Administration, is to consider separately the Corporation, the Faculty, and the Overseers and their relation to the Administration.

Corporation

The Corporation's area of complete control is in finances; it is a small board, the President, Treasurer and five Fellows, and so can give vigorous inspection to the budgets.

The Corporation does, however, meet only once every other week, and its members all have other responsibilities. The Fellows are limited in practice, then, to accepting, amending, or rejecting those financial proposals which are submitted by others. The President, the only member who has a full-time job with the University, is also the only one who can generally form policy recommendations. There is also a strong tradition of restraint on the part of the Fellows which prevents them from often taking the initiative.

The role of the Corporation can best be seen in the way it handles the Faculty's budget. The Dean of the Faculty prepares the budget for all department, supervising the use of tuition income, interest from Faculty endowments, and the preparation of all sub-budgets. The Administrative Vice-President submits the final result to the Corporation in April. For a month or so, that group will examine all budgets pruning here and there. the only time that the Corporation has asked the Dean to revise his statement was in 1933 and the depression was responsible for this unusual interference.

The Corporation does pass on some matters other than the purely financial affairs. It has examined a proposed merger with Radcliffe, the Faculty's merger with the Faculty of Engineering, and the official calendar. But these proposals go to the Corporation because of the financial adjustments they require, as the Fellows' concern is with money and its distribution. And since the President is always present, the Administration is assured that its viewpoint will be considered. The Faculty and the Overseers will rarely see the full budget until it has been passed and published.