When the College is between Administration, the Overseers step in and achieve a bit of additional control over the Corporation. Even in these instances, however, the Overseers have little authority. For example, when the Corporation selected Eliot as their choice for President in 1869, they were required to get the consent of the Overseers. Some members of the Faculty, principally the classicists and scientists, were unalterably opposed to him, however, and influenced the Overseers to reject him. Eliot's nomination was returned to the Corporation on April 21. By May 19, the Overseers had decided to agree after all. The Corporation had merely stood firm on its choice and the Overseers, after a second refusal, finally capitulated.

Students to Financiers

The authority which the Corporation delegates to the Administration is not surprising. The President is usually a man of their unanimous choice and his views not too far afield from those of the Corporation. Puscy's stands, for example, on General Education, athletic de-emphasis, and McCarthyism at Lawrence all recommended him in the eyes of the Corporation.

The Corporation was not always so willing to stick, to its bankbooks, however. In 1650, when President Dunster obtained from the General Court the Charter, the President, Treasurer and five fellows were incorporated, and Harvard still abides by this original charter. Dunster, however, intended that the five fellows were to be paid to teach or study.

The upsetting experience of John Hancock as Treasurer of the College around the time of the Revolution spurred the Corporation into changing its own composition. Hancock had proved irresponsible, keeping sketchy and inaccurate accounts, and when relieved of his position, neglecting to return some of the College's funds to the treasury. This incident drove the Corporation into seeking financial security and John Lowell, described as a "solid man of Boston," was appointed as a fellow in 1784. No more tutors or scholars were appointed after the resignation of Caleb Garnett in 1789. In this way the character of the Corporation changed from scholarly, as first intended, to financial, and its members were no longer full-time residents of the College.

In addition to Pusey and Cabot, the current Corporation consists of Charles A. Coolidge, R. Keith Kane, Thomas S. Lamont, William L. Marbury, and Francis H. Burr, who is replacing roger I. Lee.

Faculty

Just as the Corporation wields the authority in finances, so the Faculty has been theoretically given the last word in educational policy. Here, even more than in the case of the small number of fellows, the Faculty is almost completely without initiative: they do not select their own dean and there is no formal "opposition leader" to Administrative policies.

"Educational Policy" is a catch-all term for a spectrum of activities: from academic revisions, in which the Faculty is very interested, to admissions-scholarship programs, to which there is out-right apathy on the part of the Faculty. Since the assistant, associate, and full professors number above three hundred, most of the Faculty's business is handled through committees.

The Administration not only appoints the faculty representative to most of these committees, it chairs the important once: the Committee on Educational Policy, the Admissions and Scholarships Committee, the Standing Committees, and the Administrative Board.

When Provost Buck set up CEP, he provided that it be the agency for clearing all academic proposals before they could be put on the Faculty's agenda. In addition, he was the committee's chairman.

Special committees also may be set up, as in the case of the General Education committee, when a broad revision is considered. In this instance, the Gen Ed. Committee made public its unanimous report in July, 1945, and after presentation to the Faculty in October, the suggested revisions were to be referred to the CEP.

The Provost had insisted that the report must either stand or fall, with as little tampering as possible. The Faculty, however, was for from unanimous about General Education: it had always opposed compulsory courses and the plan called also for a reduction in tutorial, which the Faculty could not approve.

Then, too, there were personal considerations. Some professors who had large introductory courses feared that Gen. Ed would mean an end to the packed lecture halls. When possible these courses were considered a part of General Education and the professors were mollified. The science departments lobbied and eventually won permission for science students to be exempted from the GE Natural Science requirement. These concessions were all handled through the CEP, where the administration could be sure that the political concessions it was making to get the program through were not altering the purposes of GE. By December, and after seven Faculty meetings, all parts of the program had passed by substantial majorities.

Faculty Apathy