During his 20-year tenure, Conant also oversaw important changes in the physical and pedagogical structure of the University, including the construction of Houghton and Lamont libraries and the creation of the Graduate School of Design, the Graduate School of Public Administration—later renamed the John F. Kennedy School of Government—and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. The integration of female students at Radcliffe College into Harvard College classrooms—initially a temporary wartime measure—also occurred under his presidency, as did the creation of University Professorships, special academic distinctions awarded to distinguished faculty members to support interdisciplinary research.

“The University salutes all who are leaving Harvard to serve the nation,” said Conant on a cold winter morning in a valedictory address to the Class of 1943, whose graduation ceremony had been hastened so that the young men could enter the military service earlier.

“[Every man] feels it in his bones that men ought to be free,” he said, reminding the students of the importance of defending liberty, the greater purpose behind their sacrifice.

Like the young graduates, Conant dedicated his life to serving both Harvard and the nation. His legacy of establishing an academic meritocracy at the university level and protecting American democracy at the national level reflects a man who valued liberty in all its forms and appreciated its worth down to his very bones.

arvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in America, celebrates its 375th birthday today, and it will be feted with the fanfare appropriate for such a milestone.

At its birthday party this evening, Harvard will be serenaded by renowned cellist YoYo Ma ’76 and honored with an enormous 8-by-15 foot cake prepared by another notable alumna, celebrity chef Joanne Chang ’91.

After feasting on a specially prepared dinner (which will include dishes such as hasty pudding), undergraduates will parade into Tercentary Theatre to celebrate their university’s founding. There will be dancing, munching on hors d’oeuvres, and even an open bar under twinkling lights strung from tree to tree.

It all sounds very grand, but compared to Harvard’s 350th anniversary the affair is a low-key one. That anniversary was celebrated with a formal dinner, an appearance by the Prince of Wales, and a performance by the Boston Pops. President Reagan was invited by declined to attend.

Today, a shadow hangs over the celebration.

Following World War II, Harvard largely hitched its fortunes to the United States and rode to the top as the country ascended as a world power. In the post-war years, Harvard and the federal government grew closer as Congress appropriated increased funding for scientific research, helping to fuel the expansion of the University.

But now, as America’s star has begun to dim and other countries are diluting United States’ influence on the international stage, will Harvard’s fate be once again entwined with America’s?

THE COMING OF A SUPERPOWER

During World War II, the relationship between Harvard and Washington had grown so cozy that Economic Professor John Kenneth Galbraith later quipped that the war years were a time “when you could hold a faculty meeting every Friday on the Federal Express bound for Washington.”

Harvard had strong ties with American government since the nation’s founding—eight Harvard men signed the Declaration of Independence—but this bond took on new meaning during the World War II.

Harvard first received federal funding in the late 1800s as the United States government began to focus on promoting education (the Department of Education, then called the Office of Education, was founded in 1867). But federal funding for science research flooded into Harvard during World War II as the United States looked to academics and researchers to develop technology that would keep its military competitive with Axis powers.