Pusey Reports Trend at University Towards Interest n Whole World

In his report on the past year, President Pusey has emphasized the changes in the University through a new conception of its role--"an interest in the whole world" and a concern for the peoples, cultures, and activities beyond the Western world.

"The way all of us are now looking beyond the confines of the Western world, especially the humanists and social scientists, and those interested in varying kinds of professional education, has effected an enormous broadening of the subject matter of the curricula and of the general scholarly activity of this academic community," Pusey said. He attributed this trend to "widening intellectual interest and the growing irreversible interfusion of American and world affairs."

Harvard's world interests permeate all of the President's annual report to the Board of Overseers. Pusey commenced his report with mention of his trip last fall to Asia, during which he was "impressed by the service Harvard's Asian sons and daughters perform for their societies and countries."

The cover of the report, normally showing a University scene, this year features a Chinese woodblock print from the Fogg Art Museum collection.

Although Harvard's mission is now "world-wide," wrote Pusey, "this is not to question Harvard's essential rootage in this nation. . . . While some of our unimaginative, vituperative detractors maintain that because we are 'capitalist' we are therefore inevitably 'imperialist,' I would assert from my recent experience that our sense of 'mission' springs rather from a feeling of responsibility and generous interest in world order; and toward this end, in the development of mutual trust and the encouragement of human liberty and well being. We are seriously devoted to the advance and development of emerging regions of the world--not hypocritically, nor exclusively for our good, but also, unmistakably -- cooperatively and charitably--for theirs."

Pusey listed several measures of the University's involvement in the world:

* More than 10 per cent of the Harvard and Radcliffe student body are foreigners, and two-thirds of them receive financial aid from various sources.

* The University Faculty includes "scores and scores of scholars ... whose personal and academic origins were in countries other than our own."

* In 30 years the Government Department curriculum, for example, has changed, from a few courses on U.S. and British governments to today's several courses on politics "in almost every part of the globe." A similar broadening, said Pusey, characterizes course offerings in almost every other department of the University.

* The development of area studies, in which scholars from various disciplines join efforts ... has been a conspicuous feature of academic activity in the United States since World War II." The University has centers in Russian Research, Middle Eastern Studies, International Affairs, and International Legal Studies, plus a special office in Latin American Studies.

* In undergraduate affairs, Pusey cited the Glee Club's tour to the Far East last summer, Peace Corps activity, and Project Tanganyika, which sent 20 students to Africa last summer to teach.

* Two-thirds of the University Library's books are in languages other than English, and also the Harvard University Press has noticed "an unprecedented growth in the sales of its books overseas."

* "At the same time," wrote President Pusey, "interest in foreign tongues at Harvard has markedly increased, particularly in Slavic and East Asian languages and literatures."

Pusey also mentioned activity in the Graduate Schools of Public Health, Architecture, and Law.

In noting events in 1960-61 at Harvard, Pusey mentioned the Medical School's drive for $58 million for unrestricted use "to enable members of its staff to pursue long-range aims for which outside funds are not available either because such studies are not concerned with currently recognized requirements or because they do not promise immediate results."

Further, Pusey called attention to the current discussions over Federal aid. He noted the problem of indirect costs incurred in accepting Federal aid projects; in the possible imbalance of teaching and research, caused when Faculty members are attracted to do research for government projects; and the necessity for increasing the Faculty if more take on research. "Can we, must we, move from a traditional policy of requiring 'hard money' support for permanent appointments?" asked Pusey