Stan Miller, president of the Harvard Club of Boston, says that ever since Peterson has been in office alumni relations have been "fanastic," that the alumni office has effectively communicated Cambridge developments to the alumni. Miller, also chairman of his 25th year reunion committee and a member of the A H A's committee on undergraduate relations, says that during the A H A's meetings with the Strauch Committee. "We were encouraged to question the proposals and later asked to respond in writing to the committee." He adds, "This encouragement of feedback is just one example of the strong attempt to involve alumni with the operating body of the University."

Peterson points to the Harvard-Radcliffe Today program as a success in involving alumni with the school. Between 30 and 40 alumni come to Harvard for a four-day period. Peterson explains, and "We play it straight with them. They have breakfast in the Union attend classes and see the University as it really is."

John L. Moore Jr. '51, president of the Associated Harvard Alumni, describes the current alumni relations as "first rate." "The administration has not been afraid to put everything on the line," Moore says, and adds. "On every major University issue the alumni have been briefed at least a year in advance."

Howard F. Gillette, assistant to Peterson, credits the "rapport" within the alumni affairs organization to the "excellent communications" Peterson maintains with Bok. "It was an important move to place Peterson at the vice presidential level." Gillette says, "because it assured that the recommendations of the staff and the concerns of the alumni would be communicated to Bok."

Peterson, he says, apparently knows the cost of being candid with the alumni. "Without the generous support from the classes between 1910 and the 1940s the current open admissions policy without regard to financial situation would not be possible. It was a painful decision for many alumni because they knew full well it would lower the chances of having their children attend Harvard." Peterson says that it is the classes of the next 30 years that he must worry about even now. He explains that the graduates of the 30s and 40s "had inherited wealth to give," but the classes of the future will have to be giving up their earnings with their donations. And Peterson is concerned that the current classes might be either unable or unwilling to contribute.

Peterson says he dislikes the word 'alumni' because it is a word that defines people by what they once were. Alumni are certainly not "has-beens." For Peterson they remain an "active and vital part" of the Harvard University he deals with.