"To organize, conduct, and supervise business enterprises . . . by and for the benefit of students of Harvard University who are in need of financial assistance . . . to provide experience for its members in the management and conduct of business affairs . . . to foster, encourage, and inculcate in its members qualities and habits of work, thrift, and self-reliance . . ."

No one would disparage the objectives stated in the charter of the Harvard Student Agencies, Inc. The real question is to what extent these aims have been implemented, and here there is room for improvement. The members and directors of the HSA are the first to admit this. "With any new business," John U. Monro, Director of Financial Aid and creator of the organization, observes, "there is a natural tendency to grow, to press for its success."

The HSA, he adds, has "pressed for its success in ways in which we didn't intend to. This has had the effect of scaring people." It pressed newsstand operators, doughnut men, photographers, and others; all little men, marginalia in a growing concern. The HSA is growing; no doubt about that.

Stranger in the Fold

Sometimes the expansiveness of the business ethic raises cries of monopoly, illegal practices, or coercion; and the HSA, placed in the context of a sensitive and critical student body, has suffered from the awareness of a non-business community that a stranger is in its midst.

"The heart of the problem," as Monro sees it, "is to distinguish between the intent of the Board of Directors and the individual instances of excess. This is a very large organization. We have tried to lay down some general guide-lines, but we don't try to overdirect agencies."

Generally speaking, this has been the case. Each agency is more or less autonomous in its own sphere. Managers are required only to keep records and to submit occasional reports to the corporation. Aside from several infrequent meetings with Dustin Burke, general manager of HSA and Director of Student Employment, few students have any connection with the intricacies of the organization.

The charter granted by the State of Massachusetts declares the HSA to be "a private non-profit corporation." There is a Board of Directors, consisting of five students, five businessmen, and five Faculty members, which has the final authority for all actions and policies of the corporation.

Members of the HSA annually elect the Board of Directors, which in turn appoints the President, a student, and the General Manager of the agency. In addition to the President, there are two other student officers, a clerk and a treasurer. None of the officers receive any compensation for their services.

While the corporational framework of the HSA is made up of students, alumni, Faculty, and Administration members, most students have contact only with president Greg Stone, Burke or Monro. This triumvirate tries to coordinate the policies passed by the Board with the operations of students.

Basically the HSA has three relationships to maintain; with the University, the local business community, and the students. The question of the organization's relation to the University is a vague and ambiguous one.

Legally, there is no connection between the agency and the University, although the HSA's brochure states, "Since several University officials serve on the Board of Directors, the corporation will provide an organization through which the policies and regulations of the University affecting student businesses may be developed and communicated."

University Co-operation

HSA's relations with the University, though informal, have been very friendly. The House Masters and Freshman Dean have been willing to grant permission to member agencies to solicit in the College, at a time when the privilege of solicitation is a rare and limited one. In short, the University has no control over the HSA, but it does work in close cooperation with the corporation.

When the idea for the organization, according to Stone, was first presented to the members of the Harvard Square Businessmen's Association, "most of them approved of it outright. A few wanted to know how it would affect them. They were afraid the HSA would become some sort of monster."