Prelude to Graduation

Class Day speakers examined the beat generation, the universe, and Puritanism in yesterday morning's exercises in the Sever Quadrangle.

Adam Clymer, class orator, termed the Class of 1958 the "overclassified generation," and denounced the current attempts at pigeon-holing today's young people as the beat generation, the silent generation, or the unsilent generation.

He excused his generation's apathy toward mass demonstration on the grounds that contemporary college students tend to see that complicated problems cannot be solved by parades and placards. Clymer concluded that it is too early to evaluate the worth of today's graduates, just as their parents' generation could not be judged by "the goldfish they gulped."

Ivy Oration

Delivering the traditionally humorous Ivy Oration, Harold E. Fitzgibbons protested against an alleged "Puritan revival" on the part of the University, exemplified by bans on parking and liquor in the stadium. He also suggested that the Program for Harvard College might be augmented by turning Soldiers Field into a dog-track during the "off-season," which he claimed extended throughout the year.

Class poet Erich W. Segal entitled his selection "The Universe and Tea," and he poked fun at the multitude of Harvard "initials," from H.D.C. to P.B.K. John Felstiner gave a reading of the Class Ode, followed by Frederick Brozer who sang the ode to the tune of "Fair Harvard."

Dean Leighton presented the Ames Awards, and Dean Bundy made general remarks.