Pusey Urges Commitment By Freshmen

"Harvard admires lonely thinkers who have a public conscience," President Pusey said last night in his welcoming speech to the Class of '68 in Sanders Theatre.

Discussing plans to create an institute in the Kennedy Memorial Library where academicians and public statesman would work together as they did in the Kennedy administration, Pusey urged the freshmen to imbibe this spirit.

"The only proper way to pay back a Harvard education is to put it back to work for public good."

The President said universities are assuming new stature throughout the world. "In Western Europe and the Middle East, governments are beginning to look to the university as a key to a better future. Universities, in turn, are becoming aware of their duty to meet social needs."

"Though Harvard University has been changing at a more rapid pace than the College," Pusey said, "the College remains at the center of the institution."

In an earlier address, Dean Ford discussed the current debate over general education. Telling the freshmen they would be in the midst of a discussion of the value of the "broad 'collegiate' approach as opposed to a more specialized approach to an undergraduate education," Ford advised freshmen to become "more familiar with the issues before arguing them."

"Greater emphasis will be placed on the newer social sciences, and there will be more stress on science to show the non-scientist the intellectual achievement of science in a more flexible general education program," Ford said.