Riesman Says Present Graduate More Sure Than 25 Years Ago

Five of the Class of 1931's "most successful sons" told a near-capacity New Lecture Hall audience yesterday what Harvard had "meant" to them, and how it had "contributed to their success," but one of them departed somewhat from the general topic of "Harvard and Thereafter" to discuss the present generation.

To the apparent delight of the alumni and their wives who had returned for their 25th reunion, noted sociologist David Riesman, described the results of a series of interviews conducted by Time magazine last year with 180 college seniors from the Class of 1955, ten of whom were from Harvard.

On the basis of these interviews which Riesman himself called "fragmentary," he said the present graduate does not foresee much struggle in life, and is more apt to "plan" his life well in advance, even before he completes school.

Whereas the members of the Class of 1931 had often changed their careers, not knowing what they wanted to do when they graduated, the present graduates (from the Class of 1955) are more definite in their plan, he said.

"The Class of 1955 had a vision of life on a plateau," Riesman said, whereas the Class of 1931 was less optimistic about the future. For instance, men in '31 did not plan to marry young and have their wives support them in graduate school as the Class of 1955 did, he said.

The other speakers at the Symposium, which was moderated by Charles D. Post, were Henry C. Cassidy, news commentator for NBC; C. Douglas Dillion, Ambassador to France; Dwight E. Harken, noted heart surgeon and Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery; and James Hopkins Smith, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air.

The meeting, originally scheduled for two hours, lasted over three, and because of the evening Pops Concert, Post cancelled a scheduled question period.