HARVARD A BETTER NEIGHBOR

For the first time in recent years, Harvard is to be canvassed by an outside charity organization. The change in Student Council policy which is permitting the Greater Boston Community Fund to appeal with official blessing directly to the University's 13,000 officers, teachers, students, and employees is an indication of the new era of town and gown relationships.

In the eyes of the community in which it is situated, this will be the initial admission on the part of Harvard as a corporate unit that even a temporary resident must shoulder some of the responsibility for the welfare of the social group in which he spends a part of his time. To be sure members of the University have given generously in the past to the support of the various relief agencies of Cambridge and Boston, but previously they have done so under some regional classification other than that implied by membership in the University. For this reason the organization of the present campaign will make possible a more truly representative showing for Harvard, especially if the larger givers will divert their contributions to this channel.

Particularly appropriate is the time Harvard has agreed to include itself--for the purposes of the Fund--as one of the classifications of population of Greater Boston, because this year for the first time the Community Federations of Boston and Cambridge are combining their appeals. The University is organized for the solicitation of all its members; the Student Council has already donated six hundred dollars; the way is now clear for the University as a whole to recognize in a severely practical way its social responsibility.