The Harvard image is one of stability, the great anchor of Cambridge that has endured for as long as anyone can remember. But the impetus for change has slowly grown in the past few years, and many groups this year again called for new University policies.
As expected, the call for change met with some resistance. While students and some Faculty members questioned Harvard's policy on its investments, boycotts, and accepting gifts. President Bok, in a series of letters to the community, made it clear the University policy would not change.
Yet in one instance, change was realized, as student protest accomplished the "denaming" of the Charles W. Engelhard Library for Public Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government.
With the institution of the much-vaunted Core Curriculum and some Faculty struggles to reform tutorials, the University may be headed for even more change. Still, critics both inside and out of Harvard called the changes cosmetic, and urged more progressive measures.
The battle between change and stability undoubtedly will continue to perplex Harvard, as each faction within the University works to promote what it thinks is "best for Harvard." Whether the issue is labor, education, or student causes, the University will continue to encounter both support and opposition in its attempt to remain independent in an over-interdependent world.
September
The Class of '82 registered on a cloudy Cambridge Monday in September, boasting the lowest sex ratio ever. One thing that failed to greet them was The New York Times, but cockroaches were present in full force, infesting dorms around campus.
President Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat announced their "framework for peace" the night before classes began. The close to a thousand students who flocked the next day to Economics 10, "Principles of Economics," found a different textbook. The course dropped the Samuelson "Bible" in favor of Lipsey and Steiner's "Economics."
Eight hundred Radcliffe alumnae and guests sang "Happy Birthday" to Radcliffe as weekend festivities kicked off the year-long celebration of Radcliffe's centennial. President Horner said Radcliffe must continue "to provide the opportunity for higher education to women at Harvard and to promote women's higher education everywhere."
In a Massachusetts political upset, Edward J. King stunned Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, garnering 51 per cent of the vote to the Duke's 42 per cent. State Rep. Michael Connally edged Lois M. Pines in the hotly-contested race for Massachusetts Secretary of State.
And Harvard's kitchen workers shocked themselves and their employers by rejecting the University's contract offer because they did not receive the benefits they wanted. The decision set off speculation about a possible strike.
Meanwhile, inspired by the outrageously successful movie, "Animal House," toga parties made their reappearance on campus after a 15-year respite. Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, said "Let's just hope the sheets are kept on."
October
With politics in the air, the first College-wide undergraduate assembly at Harvard in nine years held elections in early October. Around the same time, a group of students in Lowell House circulated a petition asking for a University Food Services boycott of Nestle Corporation products because of the company's marketing practices in the Third World.
The Delta Upsilon club received some unwelcome visitors at its punching party--eight women. A club member said D.U. continues to refuse women membership because "the alumni are against it and they support us."
The Yankees may have edged the Red Sox by the narrowest of margins, but Economics 10 positively crushed its nearest competition in the fall course derby, with 300 more students enrolled than in any other offering.
Brigham's restaurant abandoned its 24-hour policy, leaving the Store 24 as the last bastion for Harvard Square nighthawks.
And then there was salmonella. University Health Services "put the matter under intensive investigation," as assistant director Dr. Sholem Postel said, but cases continued to develop.
The Cambridge Biohazards Committee approved the opening of Harvard's special containment recombinant DNA laboratory, delayed since August 1976 by controversy over the safety of DNA experimentation. Harvard shelled out $600,000 to keep genes in and Cambridge City Council out--even though new federal guidelines for DNA research effectively eliminated the need for the building.
October also marked the dedication of the newly-built John F. Kennedy School of Government. President Carter and Rep. Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass.), although invited, missed the ceremony.
Over 5000 people did attend the dedication, however. The night before, more than 500 people watched a panel discussion on "The Changing American Presidency," which featured John Kenneth Galbraith, Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus, and David L. Halberstam '55.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) gave a moving decication speech. But 400 people chanted throughout President Bok's speech, protesting the naming of the school's library for Charles W. Engelhard, who publicly and financially supported the South African government's apartheid policy.
Kennedy dispelled the tension by assuring the crowd he and his family would stay to hear a spokesman chosen by the demonstrators. Mark Smith '72-4, the spokesman, said "the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
Harvard's other protest fizzled in October, as its kitchen workers decided to accept the University's contract offer, vetoing a strike and reversing their September vote to reject the same contract.
November
The Loeb Drama Center came under the spotlight early in the month when Robert S. Brustein, former dean of the Yale School of Drama and director of the Yale Repertory Theater, approached Harvard with a new, professionalized undergraduate program in theater.
Brustein suggested dividing the Loeb mainstage production time between the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) and his professional repertory company--an idea cold-shouldered by an angry HRDC.
But another proposal met less resistance, as most Houses complied with the urgings of several student groups to boycott the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR). Students protested the CRR, formed in 1969 to discipline students who participated in the strikes that year, because they believed punishment for political action is unjustifiable.
November seemed to be the month for boycotts. A second one involving the Nestles Corporation and its promotion of infant formula in Third World countries inspired Dean Rosovsky to propose asking the Faculty to discuss a possible University policy on boycotts.
While some students avoided Nestles products in the dining halls, others skirted an even greater ill: salmonella. A widespread outbreak of the food poisoning disease broke out, reaching epidemic proportions by mid-month. Officials banned interhouse dining and imposed other restrictions which they relaxed later in the month as the contagion died down.
But while one epidemic died down, another began to build as the traditional frenetic spirit of rivalry stirred in Harvard hearts--The Game with Yale. South House residents planned a huge toga party, complete with free beer from Anheuser Busch. Everyone's expectations were disappointed, however, when Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, turned down the original SoHo proposal and Eli's men prevailed over the Big H by a score of 35-28.
Out in the real world. President Carter came to Lynn to campaign for Paul E. Tsongas and to try to avoid associating himself with Edward J. King. Despite Carter's snub, King won the gubernatorial race, joining Tsongas in the Democratic sweep.
Meanwhile, back on the Harvard campus, photographer David Chan offered a slightly more unreal competition when he attempted to recruit undergraduate women to pose in a Playboy issue on "Women of the Ivy League."
The shortest academic month of the year was nevertheless a busy one--before students went home to see what the holidays would bring, the University had some other surprises in store.
First on the list was an unexpected move by the administration as the Corporation announced that Robert S. Brustein, former dean of the Yale School of Drama and director of the Yale Repertory Theater, would take over as director of the Loeb Drama Center in the fall of 1980.
The University had previously chilled to Brustein's plan to "professionalize" Harvard theater, and the day before his new position was announced, members of Harvard's undergraduate theater community voted to reject Brustein's ideas.
The cold weather did not deter undergraduates and students at the Kennedy School of Government from picketing around the Charles W. Engelhard Library of Public Affairs at the Kennedy School. Controversy about naming the library after the millionaire who had publicly condoned the apartheid government in South Africa did not slacken.
Soon after Graham T. Allison Jr. '62, dean of the K-School, said he did not support the renaming of the library, the only undergraduate on the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) resigned from her position, charging that the ACSR did not adequately reflect the views of the Harvard community and was "stalling" on the issues.
In the eye of the storm, Thomas B. Gold, a graduate student in Sociology, was selected to participate in a student exchange program with China. On a matter a little closer to home, the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life discussed the possibility of a 14-meal plan and set up a subcommittee to formulate an official University position.
As vacation time neared, students flocked to the libraries to finish up last minute papers. They had a good excuse to stop working, however, when the power went out in Cambridge and Belmont for several hours one Saturday evening.
Another energy failure of sorts hit the following week when Harvard released its annual Financial Report. The report strongly suggested that inflation would necessitate yet another tuition increase, and the power of the dollar reached a new low at the Office of Fiscal Services.
The middle of the month signified the end for most students, who enjoyed the rest of December to the hilt--knowing what was in store for them in January.
January
Harvard's students returned to Cambridge in early January, and with them came Fred L. Glimp '50, as the new vice president for alumni affairs. Glimp, who was dean of admissions in the early 1960s and dean of the College during the turbulent late 60s, succeeded Chase N. Peterson '52.
Another new/old face, former Massachusetts governor Michael S. Dukakis, joined the ranks in January when he took a teaching post at the Kennedy School. Dukakis, ousted from his previous job by voters in the state's Democratic primary the previous September, said "teaching isn't just telling someone how you did it."
A poll conducted by the Student Assembly showed most students wanted the Engelhard Library renamed. Even more of those polled demanded the University provide free toilet paper to River House residents, a wish that was granted less than a month later.
Lest anyone should forget that there is not such thing as a free lunch, or for that matter free toilet paper, students learned a few days later of a 9-per-cent increase in the cost of a Harvard education, bringing the total price tag for next year to more than $8000. Parents should not despair, though, President Bok said, pointing out that current population trends meant that in "10 to 15 years," families would have fewer children to send to college.
After a semester of weekly meetings, the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) concluded the University should refrain from introducing shareholder resolutions in companies operating in South Africa except as a "last resort." The report concluded that "action" resolutions, calling on companies to take specic steps to further racial progress in South Africa, "seem to us to be relatively ineffective." Some students criticized the report, saying if the ACSR recognized the ineffectiveness of shareholder resolutions, then the logical next step should be divestiture.
Students slaving over their books got a little unexpected relief this January, when the state fire marshall rushed to the Science Center to dilute a batch of nitroglycerine prepared by a freshman working on science experiments. The building was evacuated in mid-exam, the nitro was defused, and before long the college was back to mid-winter normal--and more exams.
February
February was a month for small changes at Harvard, in Cambridge, and around the Bay State. While Vietnam and China battled it out in Southeast Asia, Gov. Edward J. King and Massachusetts college students slugged it out at the State House. The issue? Hiking the state's drinking age enough to keep freshmen and sophomores sober. Proposals ranged from a flat 21-year drinking age to one plan allowing 18-year-olds to drink in bars, 20-year-olds to buy wine and beer at liquor stores, and 21-year-olds to pursue any liquid vice they wished.
In Harvard Square, after a brief battle with University community relations officials, the City Council voted to keep out skyscrapers, placing a 110-ft. ceiling on buildings and insuring forever (pending a court challenge) the place of Holyoke Center as the Square's World Trade Center.
In a largely pro forma gesture, the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) ended the different sex ratios at Harvard's Houses, and after some soul-searching the Peabody Museum sold off the 106-painting Inman collection for money to conserve better the rest of its collection.
A visiting committee inspecting the Afro-American Studies Department was rumored to be contemplating a bigger change--downgrading the department to committee status. That rumor, and another that Dean Rosovsky favored the change, sparked protest from student groups and Afro-Am professors.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) promised to compensate Harvard for disrupting life in the Yard while they extended the Red Line subway network past the Square, an agreement that provoked charges of sweetheart deal' from city officials who wanted a slice of the MBTA pie for Cambridge.
Despite all the little changes in the school and its surroundings, though, a few things remained very much the same in February. Ec 10, "Principles of Economics" and Hum 9b, "Oral and Popular Tradition in Literature," ruled for another semester as the College's most popular courses, and the Hasty Pudding brought Robert De Niro and Candace Bergen to town for the best actor and actress of the year awards. Handed the traditional pot, De Niro could only say, "It doesn't have any pudding in it. I thought it would. But thanks anyway."
March
Along with the rain, March brought some good news for financial aid students. R. Jerrold Gibson, director of the Office of Fiscal Services, softened the blow of the tuition increase by announcing that Harvard students will receive significantly more federal aid in the 1979-80 school year. Many Harvard students weren't waiting around for that aid, however. Lawrence E. McGuire, director of student employment, announced that undergraduates were working harder than ever before at University-financed jobs in 1977-78, raising their earnings from $2.3 billion to over $3.1 billion.
Forty years ago, a few students weren't thinking about working. March marked the anniversary of the national goldfish swallowing fad, begun at Harvard by Lothrop Worthington '42. Worthington said eating goldfish is "just a question of mind over matter, a conditioning thing. Like eating oysters."
The decision of director of Expository Writing Richard Marius to cancel the program's fiction section sparked angry debate from both students and staff. Marius said he cancelled the section because he is "not convinced that students in fiction know how to write an expository essay." But Diana Thomson, a fiction teacher, said Marius cancelled the program because of personal and philosophical conflict between the two.
In March, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted a new trial to the three men convicted of the 1976 killing of Andrew P. Puopolo '77. The presiding judge said prosecution abuses in the jury selection prompted the retrial. Puopolo died Dec. 17, 1976, of stabbing wounds sustained in Boston's Combat Zone while celebrating the end of the football season with the team.
Meanwhile, President Bok released the first of his series of letters discussing "moral and ethical considerations" of the University's investments. In this letter, Bok said that when a university takes a stand on a moral or political issue, it endangers its intellectual freedom. Critics of the letters charged Bok with evading moral responsibilities.
Bok had to face yet another controversy in March over the issue of the University's investments in corporations operating in South Africa. Ninety-three Faculty members signed a petition calling on the University to divest of its South Africa-related investments, and many spoke out against University policy at a Faculty meeting. Kenneth J. Arrow, departing Conant University Professor, said in a letter to the Faculty Council that the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) last year overestimated the cost of divestiture of stock in companies doing business in South Africa. The ACSR said the costs of divestiture would range from $4.7 million to $16.7 million, while Arrow said "the low estimate of $4.7 million seems too high."
Read more in News
Belgian Ferry Sinks With 543 Aboard
