"THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION"

In the Spring of 1911 the Crimson published an editorial on "The Present Administration," giving a summary of and commentary on the development of the University during the first two years of A. Lawrence Lowell's occupancy of the President's chair. The Class of 1911 returns to Cambridge this week to find the situation strikingly analagous to that which existed when they left twenty-five years ago. The policies of the past great President are being crystallized and the policies of the new President are developing.

Seniors in 1911 found encouraging the tendencies cultivated by President Lowell toward modification of the elective system, broadening of entrance requirements, and cooperation with the student body in solving student problems. The contributions of the Lowell regime to higher education in America are now history of which Harvard is justly proud; but they are rendered more valuable by the fact that for the past three years under President Conant Harvard has seen no diminishing of the effort toward continual elevation of the academic standard.

The light which has guided President Conant to the heart of every problem which has faced him is his conception of the relationship that exists between the privately endowed educational institution and the nation. Pursuing this line of thought he has reached conclusions which have led him to strike out on the road toward a Harvard suited to serve both the United States and humanity with a maximum of efficiency.

The two most important contributions of the Lowell administration, the House Plan and the Tutorial System, have been crystallized under President Conant, and their possibilities as well as their limitations are becoming increasingly distinct. Changes will be necessary. But only time will show which ones, and the Administration has shown its competency by refraining from violent altercations until the gradual breaking-in process over a period of years has shown where the fundamental weaknesses exist.

It is reasonable to state that President Conant's conception of the National University, an institution serving the commonwealth, yet not under its political control, is the most important recent development. Coupled with the service of Dr. Richard M. Gummere, the new Chairman of the Committee on Admission, and Freshman Deans Leighton and Chauncey, the genius of the President has instituted a policy of National Scholarships, which, in its incipiency, is already of the utmost importance and promises to figure seriously in the shaping of the Harvard of the future.

The solidifying and strengthening of present policies has not been sacrificed, however, in the development along new lines. The Athletic Endowment Policy, the abolition of distribution requirements, and the reorganization of requirements for the A.B. degree give ample evidence that the present administration is coping capably with problems which have existed since the University was founded. The plans for Roving Professorships demonstrate again that there will be no stagnation in the educational policy.

If the Seniors in 1911 placed confidence in the future of Harvard under President Lowell, then the Seniors in 1936 are definitely in a position to feel equally hopeful President Lowell deemed it advisable to call in the cooparation of the student body twenty-five years ago. Today the student body has massed itself behind the administration, for President Conant has displayed imagination, tempered with a realization of the possible, the thing that renders imagination invaluable.