Class of 1933 Hears Symposium; Will Spend Today at Manchester

"I look back with nostalgia. The present is complete hell. And I look forward to the future with forboding, gloom, and horror," Wilbur J. Bender '27, Dean of Admissions, told the reuning Class of 1933 yesterday.

He opened a panel discussion of Harvard after 25 years with this gloomy statement on the problems facing the Committee on Admissions.

Changes in admissions policies of Harvard, and Radcliffe since 1933, was obviously the subject which most interested the 25th reunion class-the majority of whom have children approaching college age.

Constance E. Ballou, Director of Admissions at Radcliffe, echoed and amplified Dean Bender's remarks on the excess of well-qualifed applicants.

All of the 920 schools which had applicants for the 270 places in the Class of 1962, she said, were offering their top girl. About half also strongly recommended a "brilliant eccentric" and/or a "fine human being." She wistfully complained that the committee disliked becoming a "committee on rejections."

The improvements in the University's provisions for commuters since 1933, when they ate lunch in a "Black Hole of Calcutta" in PBH were outlined by Charles P. Whitlock, Allston Burr Senior Tutor of Dudley House.

Whitlock noted that up to now all provisions for the commuters had been made on a makeshift basis, as the need came into view. However, he said that when the commuters move into the new center provided for in the Program for Harvard College, he hopes they will have a House which will "yield nothing but beds" to the other eight.

The large audience in New Lecture Hall responded enthusiastically to the call of chairman H. Bradford Washburn, Jr. '33, Overseer, for a standing ovation for Arthur N. Holcombe '06, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, emeritus.

Speaking for the ordinary teacher at Harvard, Holcombe described the speed with which truth has changed since 1933.

Dean Bundy concluded the panel discussion by accenting the importance of considering the problems of the University as a whole. Harvard, he said, is exploring the edges of the expanding frontiers of knowledge "not perfectly, but creditably," and he felt that in fulfilling this role, Harvard is doing its part to preserve the freedom and safety of mankind.