With the passing of Eliot, an important era in the history of the University ended.
Immediately after his appointment was announced, Lowell, then a professor of Government, called for increased communication between students and administration. "We must work together," he told a group of students, "in building up the noblest institution in our land."
Another administrative change which was greatly to influence the University also took place during the sophomore year of the Class of 1911. In early September, the Graduate School of Business Administration was officially opened with the intention of helping to meet "what is believed to be a growing need for efficient and systematic business training."
Later in the fall, the Crimson beat Yale in football for the first time in seven years. The championship game ended with a score of 4-0 after a close fight on the playing fields of New Haven.
The Class of 1911 returned for its junior year to be met with the news that William James, Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, had died during the summer recess. In a CRIMSON editorial, James was called Harvard's "greatest figure in the world of thought."
Physical change continued. In the center of the Square, plans for the new subway to Park Square in Boston were finally materializing. Work was also begun on the Larz Anderson Bridge which was to extend across the Charles just below Soldiers Field. The Stadium itself was enlarged and the Dental School moved into a newly completed building in Brookline.
It was not until their final year at the College that the members of Harvard '11 could enter a community of relative stability. The changes which occupied their entire college career were finally being completed: construction on the MTA, the bridge, and the other structures was finished by the spring of 1911. The administrative changes which occupied the inauguration of a new University president were generally completed by this final year, and the seniors could relax in the secure atmosphere. Only the plans for a new Germanic museum and an unusually successful season of sports offered new topics of conversation.
In the beginning of the year a College official rose in Phillips Brooks House to tell an audience of incoming freshmen, "you are approaching a time of crisis in your education." Members of the Class of 1911, seniors then, could very well have recalled the time when they too were approaching that "time of crisis." But now they had completed four years of a time of change, preparing them for the five decades of even greater transition which stood before them.