"I'm always startled by the power of the development of each successive class," Blodget says.

Fitzsimmons stresses the importance of the College's aggressive multi-cultural recruiting. He decided to return to promote the dramatic diversification of the student body that took place since 1967.

"Harvard wasn't nearly as good as it is today," Fitzsimmons says.

Of the graduating students from Fitzsimmons' class, only 3 percent were members of minority groups. And women accounted for only one out of every four students 25 years ago, while the Class of '96 is 44 percent female.

The number of students on scholarship aid also increased from 25 to 45 percent.

Today, well over two-thirds of the Class of '96 hails from the public school system, compared to only half in '67. This shift corresponds also to the expanding geographic spread of the student body pool, away from the Northeast and out West.

"The Class of '67 stands in awe of the Class of '96," Blodget says. He says he wonders whether the graduates of his class could be accepted under the College's new standards.

"It's more difficult to get in now," Fitzsimmons says. Fewer students are admitted now than were accepted in '67, he says.

But along with the diversification, Dingman says massive bureaucratization has occurred since his student days.

"The place has gotten much more complicated," Dingman says.

Paradoxically, he says the University has also increased support systems for students, raising the level of contact between students and administration.

The advising system is one layer of the new bureaucracy that has fostered a more open and consultative atmosphere on campus.

"The complexity of the organization, the scope of the work, and the growth of he graduate schools has transformed the administration," says Harvey V. Fineberg '67, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The class of'67 that remained at the University sees an institution that has changed dramatically. But it is one that still reflects the hopes of their undergraduate years.

"Harvard has changed a lot in some ways and has remained a real constant too," Fineberg says.