Eighteen thousand spectators will be able to hear Prince Charles speak on Thursday morning, "Foundation Day," as the representative of Cambridge University, Harvard's mother school. Its not known yet whether Princess Diana will accompany her husband, the bonny prince, but organizers are keeping their fingers crossed.

"I hope to gosh she's coming," says Burr.

If she does, maybe it will take the sting out of Reagan's decision to snub the festivities. President Andrew Jackson paid a visit to Harvard's 200th birthday party in 1836, President Grover Cleveland stopped by for the 250th celebration in 1886, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt '04 took part in the Tercentenary Celebration in 1936. With Harvard men Donald T. Regan '40 and Caspar W. Weinberger '38 among his inner circle of advisors and planning to attend the ceremony themselves, 350th bigwigs counted on Reagan's appearance at Friday morning's convocation on "The University in a Changing World."

However, the possibility that the President might receive an honorary degree at the 350th precipitated protest among some alumni and faculty members. Cleveland and Roosevelt both were offered honoraries and some faculty members, students and graduates said they felt it would be inappropriate to so honor a man whose policies they deemed harmful to higher education.

The Corporation then seemed to back down, announcing that no honoraries would be handed out. Reagan followed suit, declining the invitation. The news sent 350th organizers scrambling to fill Reagan's slot in the second convocation, perhaps the single most important position in the ceremony. It remains unfilled to this day.

"I would have said all along it was a 50-50 chance," says Burr of a presidential appearence at the 350th. He believes that "a combination of reading about disturbances endemic to academic commencements and terrorism," not a reaction to Harvard's honorary degree dictum, led Reagan's advisors to recommend against his attending the celebration.

"The presence of the President is bound to add something to an occasion whether you like him as President or not," says Burr. "I hope we can find someone sufficently recognized and sufficently interesting--but there is a problem of time. It's hard to get someone of international stature on such short notice. But I hope it won't make that big a difference."

One big difference that Reagan's failure to attend will make, though, is in the Celebration's security budget. If Reagan had attended, Burr says, security would have been ultra tight, and spectators may have had to enter the Yard through metal detectors like those found in ariports. As it is, with Prince Charles and other dignitaries expected, security will be the most costly item in the 350th budget.

"With all the recent terrorist activity, the most expensive thing will be security," Burr says, adding that, "Prince Charles is an obvious target for some groups."

"We're not taking anything for granted," says Harvard Chief of Police Paul E. Johnson. Johnson also says that his department will coordinate its efforts with other police groups, such as the FBI, Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan District Commission.

Glitz and Glee

Celebrants will be able to cap off their daily doses of convocations and intellectual stimulation with a wide array of performances and parties planned for each evening of the celebration. The first big event is Wednesday's party on the Charles. It will feature music and dancing on special barges and on both sides of the Charles, which will be connected by a 600-foot helium arch. The party, which will be open and free-of-charge to the entire Harvard and Cambridge community, will be illuminated by lasers reflected off screens of water.

On both Thursday and Friday nights Harvard's entertainers will also be on display. "The King Stag" will be performed at the American Repertory Theater, and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company will take the stage at the Hasty Pudding Theater. Choral performances and poetry readings, along with a special film compilation of Harvard in popular movies, help round out the evening fun.

But the celebration's event of events is Saturday night's Soldiers Field Celebration. The show is being produced by Tommy Walker, the man who put on the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Before it ends in a display of fireworks, the 30,000 people who jam into Soldiers Field will hear the Boston Pops, see several undergraduate performing groups and--if they can make it--witness performances by Jack Lemmon '47 and other famous alumni from the world of entertainment.

Select alumni were offered special "Crimson Circle" tickets for the stadium celebration. A pair of the elite tickets goes for $350 but $300 of that is tax-deductible. Glimp says that the special tickets were offered to those who did a lot of work for the Harvard Alumni Association and Admissions Office, and were not designed to butter up potential fat-cat donors.