In an era where public opinion and government officials quickly equated anti-war sentiments with Communist leanings, both groups struggled to find either enough students to join or enough professors to advise them.
When the Pacifist Council asked Russian-born Professor of Psychology Pitirim A. Sorokin to be their consultant, he declined. Even though he had come to the U.S. three decades earlier, he said his Russian background made him an inappropriate choice for the position.
“My sympathies are with them,” Sorokin told The Crimson in February 1952. But “such a job should be held by someone who is a native of his country or who has native parents.”
The Crimson reported several times that the council had finally found a friend in Hollis Professor of Divinity Henry J. Cadbury, but Cadbury continually dodged questions about his involvement.
On one occasion he stated that he was not the group’s advisor but would likely become one when they had “a more definite program of action.”
But later, when the club announced that he had agreed to the position, Cadbury still avoided making conclusive statements about his involvement: “I don’t think that they need a sponsor just yet,” he said.
Altering Academic Life
With service in the armed forces seeming imminent for all Harvard men either during or after their undergraduate careers, the war also threatened to change the shape of the College curriculum.
Harvard instituted a ranking system for the first time so that the University could provide draft boards with academic information about each student.
University President James Bryant Conant ’14 proposed that Harvard alter its curriculum so that students could complete their studies in three years—to save Harvard men both money and time.
Tuition was rising because of inflation, and many men faced years in the Army reserves or in combat before they found permanent employment.
Conant argued that because of “the probability of a prolonged national emergency” students should spend less time in school.
Already tests were in place to exempt students from some first year classes, and Conant foresaw a sped-up academic calendar during the war years.
Though these war-time changes were never implemented, the war did have a profound effect on the makeup of the student population. In 1951-52, the first veteran of the Korean War came to Harvard with his tuition funded by the G.I. Bill.
That year the government announced an extension bill to provide more Korean veterans—not just those who had suffered wounds in combat—with a free education. And having just recently recovered from one global war, Harvard once again prepared to confront darkening world events.