Currently the Student Employment Office places up to 1,500 students a year in steady term-time jobs, and another 300 to 400 in casual jobs around the Boston area. These casual jobs include anything from baby-sitting and leaf-raking to modeling for an art association or bartending at a private party. For the latter type of job, incidentally, the Office has at hand an experienced group of professional student-bartenders.
Up on the second floor of Massachusetts Hall sits a small, grey-haired, sparkling-eyed lady who is obviously very happy in her job of arranging welcomes for all of Harvard's official visitors. Mrs. Alice Belcher has served as secretary to the Secretary of the University since 1936, and describes her works as "an extremely human job making things pleasant for people."
The people for whom she makes things pleasant come from all over the world, and usually drop in to visit the University-either unexpectedly or with a big fanfare-at the rate of at least one a week. Recently, for instance, the chief abbot of a Japan monastery and an archeologist from Turkey showed up quite spontaneously for a short visit. Mrs. Belcher had only a few hours notice, but she was nevertheless able, at the archeologist's request, to round up four of the University's seven Turkish students and have them meet the visitor.
Among other qualifications for the welcoming job, Mrs. Belcher has the advantage of speaking some eight languages. Most of the University's visitors are able to speak English, she says, but still "Its fun when they unconsciously lapse into their own language and I answer them in it without their realizing what's happening."
In the case of unexpected or minor visitors, Mrs. Belcher and her staff usually handle all arrangements for their stay at the University. When a more important personage is scheduled to arrive, however, the plans are more elaborate and are arranged jointly by Mrs. Belcher's office, the University and Cambridge police, and, in the case of foreign visitors, the State Department.
The recent visit of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, for example, was first planned last March when the State Department wrote Mrs. Belcher of the projected date for his tour. Mrs. Belcher then checked to make sure that President Pusey would not be out of town at that time, and notified the Government that the date was suitable. Then, knowing that the Emperor would be especially interested in something relating to his own country, she arranged for a special exhibit of Ethiopian manuscripts in Houghton Library.
When Haile Selassie finally arrived at the University, met President Pusey, and signed the official Guest Book, he did not actually meet Mrs. Belcher. But she was standing nearby, and it was on account of her careful planning that the Emperor's visit ran as smoothly as it did.
To Mrs. Belcher herself, however, the most significant aspect of her welcoming job in the help she gets from other people within the University. She especially thanks the Crimson Key for its tour service and Faculty members in general for the help with all arrangements. "They act as though this office performs a genuine service to the University, and is more than just a nuisance," she says.
Back in University Hall is the office of Miss Eva F. Wooks, secretary to Dean Leighton, and a 39-year employee of the University. Among her other duties, Miss Weekn keeps all the records of the Administrative Board, and consequently is, in Leighton's words, "the current historian of Harvard College."
Records Scholarships
The Administrative Board does not make all its decisions on the basis of precedent, Leighton emphasizes. But when a disciplinary case comes up that has been handled before, he explains, the Board is interested to know what the previous ruling was, and it is at such times that Miss Weeks' complete Administrative file, in addition to her long experience, becomes especially, valuable to the University.
And in addition to keeping the Administrative Board records, Miss Weeks also handles the office's correspondence and records prizes and scholarships awarded to students through the Dean.
But the best testimonial to the work of Miss Weeks and also to that of all the University's woman employees, is found in the last annual report of Wilbur J. Bender '27 as Dean of Students. Writing in 1952, Bender, who is now Dean of Admissions, concluded his report by expressing his "feeling of deep obligation" to Miss Weeks, "who has survived the idiosyncrasies of five Deans of Harvard College and deserves a medal for that achievement alone.
"She had done much more than survive, however," Bender continues. "Her ency clopedic knowledge of Harvard, her efficiency, her tact and patience and good will have made her literally invaluable. She is the embodiment of the wisdom and tradition of 4 University Hall and the true exemplar of that select company of selfless women servants of the University without whom Harvard's wheels would quickly grind to a halt."