When they came, Harvard’s halls overflowed with veterans. By the time they left, many were on the way to being veterans themselves.
When they arrived, the College enjoyed the benefits of the post-war economy. By the time they departed, the College had hiked tuition and drawn down on its endowment.
While they were here, all the Houses (except Eliot) passed rules allowing females to be “entertained” in the common rooms until 11 p.m.—provided the chandeliers stayed well-lit and standards of decency were maintained.
As they looked toward Commencement, they found a prospering economy with a wide-open employment market.
For the Class of 1952, life at Harvard College marked a time of transformation, a middle ground where the footing seemed stable, at least temporarily.
But across the ocean, a war—the consequences of which nobody really knew—had begun in Korea, and a communist scare traveled fast through American life.
Amid the gathering storm of world events, the man who had guided Harvard through the last world war prepared to depart. As President James Bryant Conant ’14 left, he warned of consequences to come for the University.
“We have witnessed, I am afraid, only the first first phase of a basic conflict that may well last for the balance of this century,” he wrote in his final presidential report.
It was a year of “man-snatching,” the Yearbook wrote. Congress resurrected the draft in the spring of the Class’ junior year, and ROTC programs on campus flourished. From 1950 to 1951, more than 100 College students withdrew for military service.
Patriotism, coupled with the fever of anti-communist sentiments and the desire to find communist sympathizers at every turn, reached a new high.
The men who entered Harvard in the fall of 1948 witnessed a Harvard in transition, forced to deal with the new military, political and social challenges of a country recovering from one war and embarking on another.
“We were accused of being a kind of complacent period,” said Chase N. Peterson ’52, the first marshal of the Class. “But it was a transition, more than anything else, from turmoil to new stability.”
A Restless Bunch
Given a respite for a brief few years from the troubles of the world, the College burst with enthusiasm—energy that had been sucked up by World War II was back in full force.
In the fall of 1950, several football game riots had made the sight of thousands of students charging through the Square almost a matter of routine.
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