This spring, for the third consecutive year, consumer organizations will write to the President of Harvard University, asking him to throw Harvard's sizable shareholdings and still larger influence behind their proxy resolutions.

They know that history is against them.

During its 334-year existence, Harvard has seriously considered the proxy resolutions of only one consumer organization: Campaign GM. It has considered Campaign GM's suggestions twice. It has rejected them twice.

Both times the decision was predictable. The Harvard Corporation, which made the decisions for the University, is dominated by corporate lawyers, men not unsympathetic to the interests of big business.

And George F. Bennett '33, treasurer of the College, who made the decisions for the Corporation, is perhaps the most business-oriented of all.

Bennett has influenced the Corporation so heavily in matters of investment policy for several reasons. First, as treasurer and manager of Harvard's investment portfolio, he speaks with the authority of the man who knows, the man that others must ask. Investment policy is a complex and highly specialized field. Because Bennett is both treasurer and investment manager, he has established a monopoly on knowledge of Harvard's financial intricacies.

Bennett's multiple roles have been criticized. The University Committee on Governance's "Harvard and Money" pamphlet, the Austin Committee report on "University Relations with Corporate Enterprise," and the Andrews Committee report on "The Organization and Functions of the Governing Boards and the President's Office" all question the propriety of one man's occupying so many top offices.

"The fact that the Treasurer, Financial Vice President, Investment Manager, and Managing Partner of the State Street Investment Corporation are all one person and a member of the Corporation raises not only the familiar problem of overload but doubt about how the rest of the Corporation is to achieve the human distance to monitor his judgment and performance over the full range of his extensive responsibilities," the Andrews Committee wrote.

Sensitive on this point, Bennett disagrees sharply. He sees no conflict of interest between his State Street and Harvard functions. And he has an argument that convinces many Harvard officials, especially in these days of financial troubles.

"Harvard's procedure has been very successful," Bennett said in an interview. "Harvard's financial strength isn't an accident. Why is it the last of the largest institutions to run into the red? It's because we've had good financial management."

Because Bennett's numerous duties provide him with an unequaled understanding of Harvard investment policy, and because this policy has been successful, the Corporation has readily followed most suggestions of the Treasurer's office.

Sometimes that office has acted without bothering to inform the Corporation. Last year, while Bennett was out of the country, the Corporation halfheartedly discussed the Gulf Angola Project resolutions, which opposed Gulf Oil's involvement in Angola and other Portuguese colonies in Africa. The debate was limited, Hugh Calkins '43 Fellow of the Corporation, said, because the Fellows "weren't sure what Mr. Bennett had already done." Agreeing, John Morton Blum '43, Fellow of the Corporation, said afterwards, "It was a ship that passed in the night."

One reason the ship could pass unnoticed was President Pusey's reluctance to act affirmatively in the field of investment policy and corporate responsibility. He left that to the treasurer. As Bennett observed, he and Pusey agreed on the fundamental issues.

Recently the private suite that Bennett occupied has opened to other tenants. The Overseers last May created a standing Committee on University Financial Policy. Its members--George Putnam '49, committee chairman and president of Putnam Management Corporation; Andrew F. Brimmer, governor of the Federal Reserve Board; Albert H. Gordon '23, partner of Kidder, Peabody and Co.; and C. Douglas Dillon '31, president of the Board of Overseers and former Secretary of the Treasury--are all very experienced in investment management. But while they may occasionally question Bennett's judgment in financial decisions, they are unlikely to disagree with him on social responsibility matters.

The other newcomer to the University financial scene is Stephen B. Farber '63, assistant to President Bok. Last March the Austin Committee recommended that a "fact-finder" be empowered to "sift suggestions from all members of the University with respect to what might be termed the non-financial aspects of the University's role as investor" and then report to the Corporation.