Manpower

Out of the morass of considerations raised during Faculty discussions of the Bender Report appeared three crucial problems: division of authority, money, and manpower. Each threatened either to subvert the program or to wreck it outright.

The financial question, however, was answered even before the final portion of the Bender Report had gone through the Faculty, partly through some budgetry juggling by Provost Buck but mostly through a timely grant from the Corporation. Reaching into its closely hoarded supply of unrestricted funds, the Corporation came up with one million dollars from the Allston Burr bequest, a gift better known in connection with Varsity Clubs. Not only is this ". . . support . . . encouraging," as Provost Buck put it, "to those of us concerned with maintaining the educational standards of Harvard College," but it proves anew the Corporation's flair for holding on to money until the time when it is needed most.

The question of authority has also been settled. On February 12 the Faculty solved it by passing the final portion of the Bender Plan--the Gilmore Report--which stated among other points that "Senior Tutuors . . . shall be considered to have special responsibility for working out, with the departments, the organization of tutorial for sophomores on a residential basis" and added by way of explanation that while the departments would have the final word on junior tutorial, co-operation would be expected to continue.

The only problem yet remaining is that of manpower; whether the University can persuade qualified men to accept positions as Senior Tutor. Although no University duty is particularly easy, the Senior Tutor's job will be particularly difficult for several years at least. Why? Because the position is new, and whatever importance it achieves--or fails to achieve--will depend on how well those who undertake its obligations fulfill them.

If the Senior Tutors are older men with wide experience in both the academic and the administrative fields, capable of establishing contact with students on more than purely decanal lines, then the position will become one of great importance. And only then will the goal of centering students' intellectual activities around the Houses be realized. If they are not such men, then the position will be nothing more than another cog in the University's administrative machinery.

There are rumors that the Senior Tutors have been selected already and that those chosen meet all the requirements of the job. We hope that this is true, for without qualified men no number of Corporation grants and no amount of jurisdiction for the Senior Tutors can make the Bender Plan a success.