CEP granted the Blackmer Report its final approval in February 1954, with Bush alone dissenting—and only on the proposal to allow students to graduate in three years.
With no organized opposition emerging at the Faculty meeting of March 2, 1954, Harvard became the first school to endorse the Blackmer Report, approving the CEP report and creating a Committee on Special Standing. Harlan P. Hanson ’48, then-assistant senior tutor of Kirkland House, was put in charge of its implementation.
Though the Faculty passed regulations and created a new program, the implementation of advanced standing was somewhat haphazard at the beginning.
Breck says that he was granted credit in German after approaching Hanson in fall 1955 and discussing a German newspaper with him for about five minutes. Having spent a year across the ocean, Breck says, “I spoke much better German than he did.”
After passing his French language and literature tests, and being granted German credits from Hansen, Breck says that he approached the English Department and asked for an English credit.
“They said, ‘If you got a French and a German, you probably deserve an English,’” Breck recalls.
“Harvard did something smart,” he says. “They took a very young and probably very immature, bright young kid and they said, ‘We’ll do whatever you want.’”
Breck lived in Lionel Hall for his first semester and then moved to Lowell House for his final two and a half years.
Philip E. Burnham ’60, like Breck, spent a year abroad before coming to Harvard—though he spent it taking courses at the University of Edinburgh. Burnham came to Harvard in the fall of 1957, but spent much less time in the Yard before moving to Winthrop House.
“I spent three days in Mass. Hall above the president’s office as a freshman, and then I was subsequently and swiftly transferred to sophomore status,” Burnham says.
Though advanced standing students now remain in the Yard during their freshman year, the program as a whole has changed little since 1954. Advanced students can still graduate a year early or choose to remain for a fourth year and earn a master’s degree, though most now choose the latter option.
Looking back, some of the early participants regret having graduated early, instead of staying for a fourth year.
“I don’t know in retrospect if that’s a terrific idea,” says George M. Whitesides ’60 about his three-year College education. “All the things that would be wonderful to have done in that last year, I didn’t do them....It’s nice at the time because it makes you feel special, but what comes of the flexibility is what you make it.”
—Staff writer Joshua D. Gottlieb can be reached at jdgottl@fas.harvard.edu.