MacLeish Says Harvard Expansion Has Come to End; Enrollment at Peak

Indicating that Harvard is always in a period of evolution, Archibald MacLeish in his article "The Next Harvard" in the current "Atlantic" presents and comments upon the present changes and future trends in the life of the University.

The time has come, according to MacLeish, when Harvard must admit that it has reached the peak of its expansion, and that it must organize itself within existing frontiers rather than expanding its present limits. The swing toward specialization and isolation of knowledge in one field has come to an end. Fields are becoming increasingly coordinated with each other, and the cooperation has led to great advancement in learning.

Taking the Littauer School of Public Administration as an example of a new form of study, MacLeish expains that men are not trained to get jobs in government, but that men whith jobs in the government are brought back to the University to study the problems of their profession. There is a definite advantage in bringing men from public life into contact with teachers and research scholars. A center for social science develops where students of economics, law, business, and political sciences may gather for discussion of problems which affect them all.

Praising the adoption of national scholarships in 1935, MacLeish said that they have helped tremendously in bringing a cross-section of the country's students to the University. The help of scholarships in finding talented students, he continued, is invaluable.

MacLeish then states that unfortunately the University budget cannot support the expense of carrying out these programs, that it must curtail such expenditures since future donations will necessarily be reduced because of rising taxes.