Frosting on the Cake

Whether through a celebrity in the dining hall, a new drama workshop, or a bottle of sherry at a concentration dinner, the Ford grants to the Houses touch the undergraduate in many ways. From a Ford Foundation award, the Corporation annually gives $25000 to each Master, allowing him, as Master Fair puts it, "leeway to apply his imagination."

Among the various programs which have evolved, the most publicized, though not always the most successful, has been the parade of House visitors. In the past year these have included Robert Frost (Adams), T.S. Eliot (Eliot), Robert Oppenheimer (Lowell), Chester Bowles (Winthrop), to name only a few. But, even if a House manages to snare a "big name" in what Master Finley calls the "celebrity race," it has not necessarily scored an educational triumph. Under the pressure of crowded schedules, well-known writers and statesmen can not stay as long as they--or the Masters--would like. "It takes a Harvard bunch four or five days to get to know anyone," observed Master Perkins, and unless a visitor can do more than eat and run, "it seems a little excessive to pay his travel expenses and a generous honorarium just to let students shake his hand." However, as Finley pointed out, a visitor "can either spread himself hopelessly thin, or he can meet more fully with a few people." Eliot House takes the latter approach.

Of course, many highly worthwhile people do not sport "big names." But, according to Master Taylor, "if a man is not well-known, busy students may ignore him--no matter how valuable he may be--and the visit will be a failure." Occasionally, however, an "informal teacher" (such as Nadia Boulanger, who visited Adams) is a great success. "We try to have visitations, not public lectures," explained Master Brower.

In many Houses, tutor-student dinners have won enthusiastic praise. At Kirkland, for example, seven undergraduates and three tutors get together over sherry and a served meal in the private dining room. These small area dinners offer "another line of faculty-student communication," said Taylor, "and they give us a lot for our money."

Lowell House uses a slightly different approach. Instead of area dinners, tutors from four different fields each invite two students preferably not their own tutees. Instead of a dinner-table tutorial, there is, hopefully, a mixing of interests. "These meetings often last until 9 or 10," Perkins noted. Winthrop is another of the Houses which sponsors regular tutor-student dinners, and Master Owen observed that "Ford would be surprised to know how much of his money goes for sherry."

Ford money has also paid for capital improvements: art and drama studios for Dunster, seminar rooms in Winthrop and Kirkland, and such things as photographic enlargers and tape recorders. But, as Fair explained, "generally we don't want to sink our money into hardware."

In addition, some Houses use the funds for more unusual purposes. Dudley sends a commuting student abroad each summer, Kirkland once engaged the Billy Taylor jazz trio, Winthrop offers grants for special thesis projects, and Adams sponsors exhibitions of student collections ("everything from coins to ikons to rare books").

In general, the Ford money provides the frosting on the sponge cake, and the Masters can spread it as they will. Experimentation will continue, but so far, the tutor-student dinners and House "visitations" are the core of the program.