Since then, many students have considered Hutchison conservative, even though he professes a liberal social philosophy. HIs wife Virginia, co-master of Winthrop House, called the episode the "growing pains" of the mastership.

This year will mark the third year of the Hutchisons' tenure in Winthrop House, and since that first year, the growing hasn't been as painful. Last semester, the Hutchisons were on leave in Berlin where Master Hutchison did research in comparative history.

Hutchison, the tallest House master at 6 ft. 5 in., wants to concentrate on the educational aspects of the house this year. After reorganizing much of the House's administration, Hutchison wants to tackle House seminars.

"During my first two years we put a lot of time into the reorganizing of tutorials and the administrative structure of the house," Hutchison said. Hutchison added that the physical development of the House was lacking, and new seminar rooms, music rooms and art rooms had to be built.

With Winthrop's physical and administrative problems solved Hutchisons's next project will be related to the House seminars, which he claims should either be strengthened or abandoned. "I want to get our own senior faculty involved in the House," Hutchison said. But Hutchison says that because of the positions they hold, senior faculty have little extra time to teach House courses. Hutchison wants to find ways to give affiliates of Winthrop House extra blocks of time so that they can teach at Winthrop House.

Hutchison views his job as master as a very complicated one. "It's a multiple role--academic dean, leader of a group of faculty within the House, and personnel officer. Essentially it's a coordinating function. I'm an administrator of an educational and living unit," he explained.

And over the past years, Hutchison has seen changes in the master's functions. Hutchison claims that when the position of master was conceived masters were supposed to teach students manners. But he's wary about further changes in the role of Houses in the University. "If the Houses are to become mainly dormitory or social units then most people now masters wouldn't be interested," Hutchison said.

The master's functions have also become more complex because of the social advances of the past decades. "Co-education has made staffing more complex, and changes relative to student participation in decisions, such as tutor selection have added to that," Hutchison said. "It's great but it makes things more complex," he added.

Co-mastership is another innovation that has resulted from social changes. "Co-mastership is an excellent idea. It means that the spouse has an official position to go with the amount of work she does," Hutchison explained. But Hutchison distinguishes between the master and the co-master. "If, as the University claims, the House is an educational unit, certain things follow. The idea of placing educational authority in the person who is a member of the Harvard faculty is quite important," Hutchison said. "The rule that the master has final authority should be kept and strengthened," he added.

The 46-year old master was born in San Francisco and went to Hamilton College in upstate New York. After graduation, he spent two years at Oxford as a Fulbright scholar. In 1956 he earned his Ph.D. in history from Yale, and since 1968 he has been Warren Professor of the History of Religion. This year Hutchison will teach one undergraduate course, Religion 148, "Religion and American Culture since 1800."

"The House system is rather paternalistic," Hutchison says. "I'm not so sure that students need all that supervision or presence of supervisory figures in their entries," he said, adding "I would prefer to see students running their own lives in the Houses to a greater extent. Our ideas about tutors are colored by this bias."

While Hutchison wants to see a change in the function of tutors, he views the system of senior tutors as very sound. "The decentralization of Harvard College that is involved is good," Hutchison said. "But I would like to see senior tutors have somewhat less disciplinary responsibilities. The senior tutor has a lot of disciplinary functions I wish he didn't have. Students are basically grownups," he added.

Hutchison claims that being a master has had a positive affect on his family life. Although his family is a lot busier now than when they lived in Lexington, there are other advantages. His children, two of whom live at home and two of whom go to college, enjoy mixing with the students. "I'm at home more now and the contact within the family is closer. And my wife and I are really doing something professionally together," Hutchison said.

These profiles were written by Marilyn Booth, Gay Seidman, Steve Levine, Marc Sadowsky, Nicole Seligman and Richard Weisman.