Their infighting was to peak over the selection of Charles Eliot (1853) as the Corporation's choice for Harvard's next president. The Overseers, appalled by Eliot's new views on education, opposed the nomination but they were unsuccessful.

In the 1860's the Board was freed of direct legislative intervention and control of the body was transferred to some Harvard alumni.

Yet even this change was not enough to mollify some critics who charged that the Board remained too insular. "In the days when Eliot was the president of Harvard, you had a very homogenous group," says Boston Federal District Court Judge William G. Young '62, a longtime overseer observer currently chairing a committee on the composition of the Board. "Most of the people were from around Boston, as the College didn't really draw from areas other than New England."

The prevalence of Brahmins on the overseers grew into a matter of great concern in the 1880's. The Harvard Club of New York led a long and successful campaign to place a member on the ballot--the first to come from outside metropolitan Boston. Such nominations, few as they were, were hampered by the manner of election: at the time voters had to be present at Commencement ceremonies to participate in the overseer selection process. This rule was soon changed to allow alumni to vote by mail--an innovation that greatly expanded the geographical variety of the overseers.

The final critical change came in 1916 when the University allowed holders of all Harvard degrees to vote in overseers elections. Previously, only graduates of the College and a few of the professional schools were granted the franchise.

Historically one of the greatest sources of friction between overseers and Corporation members has been the issue of honorary degrees which are conferred at Commencement. Within the last decade, several honorary degree nominations from the Corporation have been attacked by the overseers and abandoned.

Perhaps the most prescient battle over honorary degrees occurred when overseer John Quincy Adams (1787) refused to attend an honorary degree ceremony conferring the coveted parchment on his political enemy Andrew Jackson, who Adams called "a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and could hardly spell his own name."

Jackson was receiving a degree on the occasion of the University's 200th birthday. In later anniversaries, Presidents Grover Cleveland and Franklin Delano Roosevelt '04 came and received honoraries. That tradition was broken last fall when President Reagan, who was denied a degree, declined to attend the 350th citing a busy schedule.

The presidential spell has never seemed to leave the governing boards. In the early 1960's, shortly before his assassination, Overseer and President John F. Kennedy '40 held a meeting of the overseers in the White House. He resigned shortly thereafter to attend to his Oval Office duties. This year, Democratic Presidential hopeful Albert Gore Jr. '69 (D-Tenn.) is among the University-nominated candidates for the Board.

Nor are the governing boards historically averse to politics, albeit on an informal level. During the London raids at the beginning of World War II, Conant presided over an acrimonious overseers meeting. A president often faulted for stormy relations with the governing boards, Conant attacked those overseers who cautioned neutrality in the emerging conflict.

The turning point in the recent history of the governing boards is widely seen to be the turmoil of 1969. The debates of that year set off an acrimonious examination about government at Harvard that continues to reverberate today as seen by alumni calls for broader representation on the overseers, student calls for participation, and calls by the governors themselves for an overhaul.

These internal rumblings for change lay behind a series of committees that looked at government in the early 1970's. The Dunlop Committee revamped Harvard's administrative system, adding an extensive internal structure of five vice presidents. This new corporate apparatus freed up the governing boards to handle long-range concerns.

Under the guidance of Corporation members Andrew Heiskell and Francis H. Burr '35, the University's top governing body moved away from detailed involvement in the day-to-day affairs of the University toward a more global perspective.

The move away from detail "came about at the same time as responsibility for the day-to-day functions has been given to the administrative people since they know more about it," says Heiskell, who is retiring from the Corporation this year.

Changes in the Corporation role also heralded changes in the overseers' responsibilities. A body that had largely atrophied during the Pusey years, when overseers were mainly known for their ability to contribute to the University's endowment, it has been given a new long range role as Bok has resuscitated the visiting committee system.