It is an ancient philosophical problem: If a tree falls in an unpeopled forest, is there any noise? You may have the same problem imagining Cambridge in the summer. Does it really exist when you are gone?

This summer Cambridge did exist and it kept on going. Even some atmosphere of the year-round Harvard continued. Directory assistance was still there (along with that wonderful lady with the acerbic British accent). Many professors stayed around till late August's heat and humidity drove them to the mountains and to the Cape. When we walked by the Union this summer, strange and stultifying smells still emanated from the back kitchen.

But for the most part, it was a Cambridge in slow motion, a muted, low-key Cambridge. Even the summer school students, who bounced in full of summertime excitement, money and curiosity, wilted when the thermometer hit 99. For half the summer, Crimson staffers tried to think of new and imaginative ways to make the weather slug say, "It will be raining again goddamit." The rest of the summer our problem was getting the papers delivered before they melted.

Some of the news in those papers spilled over from the school year. Some will affect you next year. And important things went on in Cambridge while you were away.

HEW Says Harvard Is Still Off Balance

On June 13, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare rejected Harvard's affirmative action proposal. HEW's main objection to the plan, which was submitted May 1, was that it did not breakdown by department the goals and timetables for the hiring of women and minority group members.

HEW also listed its dissatisfactions with the following:

The University's present nepotism policy (which the HEW said it considers discrimination by sex.)

The position and authority of Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to President Bok and coordinator of the Affirmative Action Program (HEW questioned whether Leonard had enough authority to enforce the hiring plan.)

A Yen For Education; Busing at Harvard

Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor, laid foundations this summer for more construction at Harvard. Reischauer visited Japan on July 3 and spent several weeks there seeking the $45 million necessary to build a Japanese institute at Harvard.

These efforts became necessary when the Ford Foundation announced that it would discontinue its annual $500,000 gift for East Asian studies. The Ford Foundation has been giving that money to Harvard for almost 20 years, Dean Rosovsky said on July 17.

Jerome Cohen, professor of Law, already obtained $1 million from Mitsubishi industries for the endowment of a Japanese law school professorship.

Phillips Brooks House, too, got some extra money this summer. Early in July the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave PBH $15,000 to support the Harvard Africa Volunteer Project. The three-year award is the second largest gift ever received for the 12-year-old project. The National Council of Churches made a $28,000 grant last year.

The University may also find money this year to finance the River-Quad shuttle bus. Complaints from a number of men--primarily athletes--changed the shuttle bus from a topic for debate to a real possibility.

Dean Whitlock said August 1 that he is "90 per cent sure" that there will be a bus at 6 p.m. daily from Dillon Field House to Radcliffe. He said the Administration is considering a second bus, a continuous evening shuttle, if a University's department can be persuaded to put up the necessary $40,000 a year.

One particularly vocal group of freshmen athletes assigned to live in Radcliffe against their will had said that they would refuse to live at Radcliffe unless a bus were instituted.

Gallo Wine Down the Drain

Harvard athletes were not the only ones who were threatening and bargaining this summer. Strikes and boycotts marked almost every week of the long hot summer. The liberal/radical checklist of boycotted products increased this summer by two items, bringing the total to six.

In the wake of the allegations that Portuguese soldiers massacred Mozambique villagers last December, the African Liberation Support Committee announced July 27 a boycott of all Portuguese products. That decision added freeze dried coffee to the list of untouchables for Cambridge liberals. The farm workers' boycott of Gallo wine added a second item to the list.

"Congratulations," Says Bok. "Why?" Asks SDS

Eight members of Harvard/Radcliffe SDS confronted President Bok on August 8 to seek an explanation for what they called a "note of congratulations" he sent to Richard J. Herrnstein, professor of Psychology.

SDS questioned Bok in front of Massachusetts Hall in several attempts to give him a letter condemning the "hand-written note of congratulations."

The SDS letter cited the July issue of Science Magazine, which included an article which described the contraversy surrounding Herrnstein 's views on the inheritability of intelligence, and said that Herrnstein described Bok's note as evidence of support of Herrnstein's theories.

Hunt Hall Becomes Hunt Hole

While the University Administration pondered and juggled figures, other University-related actions went on without a hitch. Construction at various sites began on schedule and, despite the efforts of some students and faculty to "Save Hunt Hall," destruction went on as scheduled too.