The President's Concluding Report: A Summing-Up and a Glance Ahead

Below are presented excerpts from retiring President James BryantConant's twentieth and last Annual Report:

The Present Struggle

We have witnessed, I am afraid, only the first phase of a basic conflict that may well last for the balance of this century; though I hasten to add that I am not one of those pessimists who see either World War III or the defeat of the free nations as the only alternative outcomes of this conflict. I believe we can and will avoid an atomic global holocaust and given time, courage and patience, that the tradition of dissent and freedom will prove to be a better guide for a heavily industrialized society than totalitarian communism." ... The next ten years, if they bring neither World War II nor peace will be in a sense a continuation of that long period of trial for the university tradition which started when Hitler came to power in Germany.

A Stable Faculty

...except in a period of great expansion there is little hope of building a distinguished faculty unless there is a long range plan for continual recruitment of the most promising oung men. And as the most promising young men. And as for expansion, this would be possible on a sound basis in a college like Harvard, which does not wish to enlarge its student body, only it the income from endowment increased markedly...that this is unlikely to occur in the immediate future has seemed to me quite clear. That is the reason why I have resisted in the last few years many demands from certain members of the Faculty of Arts and sciences to take advantage of temporary grants from foundations of government contracts to well the ranks of the faculty. Against such inflationary pressures, such deficit financing,--for it is i essence exactly that-may I once again warn the Governing Board.

On Government Research

The Government research money that we are spending is as free from restrictions as to publication of results as the usual grant from a foundation. Without it the research of many of our most distinguished professors in the natural sciences would be severely restricted. As long as the proportion of such funds of other temporary grants is not too large, and as long as the inflationary pressure of such money does not jeopardize a sound personnel policy, I see few dangers in this form of Federal subsidy. But each dean and budgetary officer is well aware of the precautious nature of governmental support and is ready to cut back the expenditures in any research project or laboratory when the support fails.

On Admissions Policy

... to inform the potential applicants in far away communities about Harvard College is one of the urgent tasks that lie ahead. Whether this can be done with the cooperation of alumni groups without turning the whole effort into a vast recruitment campaign for football players may be doubted by some cynics. But knowing something of the spirit of the Harvard graduates and their scale of values. I have confidence that it will be done ... in no single matter can the alumni of the Eastern colleges perform a greater service for their own institutions and for the future of higher education than by balancing the spirit of rivalry in athletics with an insistence that each college be judged primarily by its services to the nation as an educational institution.

On the Design School

The most drastic change in any school or department has occurred in what was the School of Architecture and is now the School of Design. A new dean appointed a few years attar I took office soon introduced new professors and a totally new outlook. This radical departure from traditional architectural and architectural instruction had first to maintain itself against heavy conservative pressures from outside. But before long others followed our lead; what eighteen years ago was a startling novelty is now accepted as basic doctrine in all architectural schools in the United state.

Fund for Medical Education

The National Fund for Medical Education which is now golociting money from industrial companies, is the most premising answer to a serious deterioration in medical education. Indeed. Substantial supper from industry by one method or another appears the only solution, that is unless one contemplates a permanent Federal subsidy with all the difficulties and problems such a subsidy would bring.

On Tutorial

When Mr. Lowell introduced the tutorial system forty years ago, I feel certain he expected it to drive out the "course system." This has not occurred: indeed, exactly the opposite has taken place; new courses have proliferated to a degree that seems absurd. American professors, old and young, like to give courses (and so do I, I must admit). Few care to do tutorial work after the first dozen years. Since no other American college has adopted a tutorial system (to me a significant fact), experience in tutorial work is not considered useful as a preparation for employment elsewhere.

On the Humanities

the basic problem of the Humanities is a spiritual and moral problem. It some of my generation and those older would recognize this fact, we might have less tearful hand wringing about "the fate of the humanities." The truth of the matter is that much of what passes for appreciation of the arts and letters in some circles is a combination of antiquarianism, a collector's instinct, and the old snob appeal of a 'gentleman's education." The academic people who pander to these tastes to my mind do a positive disservice to the humanistic tradition, which is, is fact, the tradition of the continuing triumphs of the creative human spirit.

One boundary of the area we designate as that of spiritual values is formed by the imaginative creations of the poet, the dramatist, the artist, and the musician. The writings of historians form still another. Yet because we all recognize how difficult it is to get even a glimpse of what historical personages really felt and thought, we turn to literature as the medium for communicating ideas about the spiritual life of individuals....

Conceived in this way rather than as a battlefield for the cognoscenti, old and young, the humanities are central to a general college education. It is my conviction that may of the younger members of the Harvard staff, particularly those interested in the General Education. program, see the matter in just this light. For this reason I believe the future of the humanities at Harvard is certain to be bright.

On Academic Independence

Among the reasons for this change is the popular attitude towards institutions of higher education is the failure of colleges by their collective action to demonstrate the nature of their primary task. For example, the public entertainment business in which almost all of us are engaged has become so competitive as to generate public scandals. (Let us remember Harvard was the first college to build a stadium, and if President Lowell had not stood steadfast against alumni pressure, we would have today a giant stadium built in the gay twenties on borrowed money.) Another reason, perhaps, for public suspicion of the colleges is the special position they have occupied under the Selective Service Act as this has been administered. A group of college presidents of whom I was one proposed in early 1951 that a universal military service law be enacted; but this suggestion was not followed by the Defense department and Congress. Instead Selective Service promulgated regulations which were designed to keep the colleges full of students and give in fact total exemptions to most scientists and engineers.... But by and large it has been the boy who was not able to go to college whose family has had to mourn. It is obvious that such a policy does not make for national unity...

Conclusion

Today once again we live in a period of peril, far greater peril to my mind than many of us appear to realize. The prospect of the physical annihilation of all of Harvard is for the first time in our history a possibility that we must admit. The destruction of the spiritual premises on which our whole tradition rests is likewise a possibility that no one can deny who recalls the fate of the University in Prague. To prevent such possibilities' becoming in fact realities is the problem that we face collectively and individually. Each one of us must asses the situation personally and guide his course accordingly.

How to serve a free nation at a time of partial mobilization, how to reconcile the essential tradition of dissent with the need for national unity in the face of danger-these are the major problems now facing this ancient community of scholars. These problems were undreamed of in 1933. They will be history two decades hence. What their solution may be is not for me to say. But I conclude this report with the strong conviction that short of a global war, the universities of this nation will be even more significant in 1973 than they are today. As vital centers of sound learning, as strongpoints defending individualized liberty, as communities of creative thinkers, on industrialized democracy can do without them: each year will demonstrate their indispensability to this society of free men.