College Year In Review

Pearl Harbor split the academic year of 1941-42 into two distinct sections. Before December 7, the war, and everything to do with it seemed unreal and far away, but after the first bombs fell on Hawaii, Harvard, its students and Faculty, devoted themselves completely to the struggle, and anything else became superficial.

7,118 men, comprising the largest Freshman class in history, signed their way into Harvard on September 20, and then assembled in the Union to hear District Attorney Robert F. Bradford '23, Willard L. Sperry, dean of the Divinity School, and Richard M. Gummere '01, chairman of the Board of Admissions, carefully avoid any mention of the war, and deal instead with the opportunities offered by Harvard.

But though the war was forgotten at that first meeting, when the new Yardlings entered the musty old classrooms for the first time, they found the ranks of the Faculty decimated. Many of the University's best-known and most competent teachers had left to serve the country in Washington.

Information Bureau Formed

Early in the year, the Defense Information Bureau, later changed to the War Service Information Bureau, was established in University Hall and Law Professor A. James Casner placed at its head.

Civilian defense hit home at Harvard on October 7, when President Conant announced the formation of a Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Donald Scott '00 to organize an A. R. P. system. By the end of the year, the University had a fairly smooth-working system under Chief Warden Aldrich Durant '02, 600 trained wardens, an auxiliary fire and auxiliary police service, fire watchers in the House towers, airplane spotters, and first aid experts. Blackout paint and curtains were installed, and liberal quantities of sand, stirrup pumps, and other equipment supplied.

Although the opportunity had been offered undergraduates to complete their work for a degree in three years, by mid-October only 86 men had applied for permission to do so.

Mid-Year Degrees

On October 17 the Alumni Bulletin announced that but 22 per cent of the undergraduates wanted war immediately, nearly half felt that the Neutrality Act should be repealed, and more than 50 per cent thought that they should not be drafted.

The University announced on October 23 that any Seniors who were drafted by mid-years could get degrees under special conditions.

Just six days before Pearl Harbor, Director of Admissions Gummere revealed that the entrance requirements had been cased, allowing admission with fewer examinations, while Professor Michael A. Karpovlch, now czar of History I, and expert on Russia, asserted that the Soviets can "hold out indefinitely."

Undergraduates and Faculty alike did not question the outcome of the struggle begun that Sunday morning, nor the righteousness of the nation's stand. Said the CRIMSON on December 8, "We believe that in the present war they are synonymous. In that belief we fight and in that belief we will triumph."

Mobilization Rapid

With the declaration of war, the second chapter of the year began. So rapidly did the University mobilize itself for the demands of a nation engaged in a total war, and so remarkably did the attitude and atmosphere of the University community become determined and serious that Time later dubbed the period "The Hundred Days."

The Business School, which had already set up a Quartermaster unit, a Naval Supply Corps, and an Industrial Administration course, established a special program for the Army Air Force late in the spring, and doubled its other enrollments. The A. R. P. program shifted into high gear, the graduate schools speeded up admission, mid-year graduation prerequisites were relaxed, A. R. P. questionnaires were distributed, and War Certificates were made available to students leaving without a degree, as Harvard drastically transformed itself into a war machine.

But a few indications of business-as-usual appeared; the new Houghton Library for rare books was dedicated on February 28; the threatened death of the "Mole" in the Dick Tracy comic strip had brought residents of Adams House up in arms for his defense, bombarding Chester Gould with telegrams and letters; Clark Hodder, hockey coach, quit under fire, because of a training break he authorized at Lake Placid; and intercollegiate sports programs continued practically as usual.

Compulsory Athletics

This new Harvard consisted of sugar rationing, a flurry of bicycle sales, expanded plans for the summer term, announcements that Freshmen could enter in February and June, more A. R. P. drills, a new athletic plan, allowing Freshmen on Crimson varsities and moving the managerial hierarchy up one year, daily reports of revised requirements for commissions in the armed services, more professors heading out to Washington, and to top it all off, the compulsory athletic program.

Organizations like the Student Council, the CRIMSON, and Phillips Brooks House adjusted themselves to the new accelerated program, which had completely muddled the familiar four-year pattern.

On March 5, Cambridge blacked-out, and students saw to it that Harvard was "perfectly" darkened, according to Chief Air Raid Warden Aldrich Durant. Two months later came the dim-out, as the Square was grayed, and students were asked to draw their shades, to comply with the Army's orders.

Except for an occasional water-fight, spring was marked by the absence of the usual undergraduate pranks. Only one or two, such as the replacement of President Lowell's portrait with that of a "Goya girl," in Lowell House, provided contrast to the grim business-like atmosphere.

Mrs. Roosevelt, in a broadcast over the Crimson Network, urged students to remain in college, and the many deferment plans organized by the Navy and Army suggested to the undergraduates that college was the best place for them.

A colorful monster review of Harvard's armed might was held on May 11, and witnessed by high military officials from the neighboring First Corps Area, President Conant, Governor Saltonstall, and University dignitaries.

To take over the Yard, vacated by the moving of Freshmen to the Houses, the University revealed that Naval Radio Communications students will be barracked in the old dormitories.

Closing the year came the award of honorary degrees to the country's fight for freedom, and the graduation of another Harvard class, trained to step into its place in a nation at war.ELLIOTT PERKINS '23 took over the chairmanship of the important war service information Bureau, central office of student inquiries about opportunities for usefulness in the war effort. He replaced A. James Casner, now a major in the Army intelligence, last June.