In Riesman's view, the erosion of the old standards has not been accompanied by the growth of new loyalties. "No new ethic, academic or intellectual, has taken the place of the older relative consensus about values."

THE RELIANCE ON numbers, in place of an evaluation of subjective personal qualities, has been greeted as elitism by many parts of the Harvard community, Riesman said. "The criticism of ongoing academic processes--'business as usual'--heightened after Cambodia, had its impact in undercutting the convictions or inertias by which traditional academic requirements had been maintained."

"By the late 1960s, some young people torn between competing values, between striving for meritocratic success and fearing both success and failure, became leaders of the contrameritocracy, even in some cases calling for open admission to Harvard College," Riesman noted.

In an interview last week, Riesman acknowledged that the reaction against strict academic standards has died down in the post-Cambodia political quiet.

Since Cambodia, Riesman said, "actions have changed, but not perceptions." He asserts that the economic downturn has increased the number of studious potential doctors and lawyers, but that grades have not been accepted by students as sources of personal validations.

Riesman himself was heavily involved as an undergraduate in extra-curricular activities. He was a Crimson executive, speakers chairman for the Liberal Club, and "I went to a lot of debutante parties."

The bitter competition which has accompanied the rise of egalitarian meritocracy has claimed many Harvard casualties, Riesman said. "The spin Harvard puts on those it validates is terrific, but the price is the casualties of the competitive process," he added. Riesman acknowledges a conflict between the admissions process valuing non-academic strengths, and the objective criteria holding sway in the contemporary Harvard environment.

ATHLETES ARE SOMETIMES especially wounded by the Harvard environment, Riesman notes. "Many faculty members are antagonistic to athletes," he explained. "Even the successful varsity athlete, especially a football player," often feels "that he must prove that he is not merely an athlete."

The Houses have not done their job of bringing students into contact with their peers and with faculty members, Riesman said. In the Houses, "defensive or inertial enclaves" form, insulating their members from contact with other students, he explained.

Riesman believes that Harvard must be made a more "supportive and nurturent" place. He sees a national trend towards more low-key schools like Brown, which recently instituted pass-fail grading on a wide scale.

The Houses are "the main route" to a more supportive Harvard Riesman said. He advocates a retreat from a full House system. Riesman would turn some of the Houses into dormitories, and run a few outstanding Houses with "scintillating" Masters. "The Masters, appointed for a short term, eliminating the idea of lifetime commitment, would give these Houses character. A House might specialize in something like natural science, music, and archaeology," Riesman explained.

The dormitory-Houses would be established in order to accommodate students preferring not to participate in House life, and because it would prove "impossible" to find 13 outstanding Masters. For some students, Riesman hopes, this handful of Houses will provide viable academic and social communities.

Riesman also favors creating more "workshop" type settings in the College. A workshop atmosphere, which he said exists in small departments like Vis Stud and Geology, emphasizes small groups of faculty and students working together on common projects.

In addition, Riesman advocates the integrating off-campus work into the Harvard plan of study.

ON NOVEMBER 5, 1929, the Crimson reprinted the text of a speech delivered by F.W. Taussig, Lee Professor of Economics, at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Class of 1879.

Within fifty years, he said, "Cambridge will be a place of brick and mortar, of noise and scurry and distraction. To the graduate school this forbodes no ill...But a metropolis does not readily foster a college. Is the old Harvard here to stay?"

Taussig's answer was an optimistic one. He imaged "noble buildings," "monumental bridges," the Yard as an "oasis in the city wilderness," and a College maintaining the "traditions and spirit of the past."

The future of Harvard will always be a little hazy.