The University and the Kennedy Memorial: Last Week Was Significant for Them Both

Harvard's announcement last week that it would build a large building for the study of government and economics on the site of the John F. Kennedy Library was made with customary austerity. The University News Office simply put out a release saying that Harvard was asking court permission to change the name of the Graduate School of Public Administration to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy School of Government and mentioning (just incidentally, more than half way through the release) that it had also asked permission to move the "headquarters for the School" (Littauer) down to the Library site.

The event was more significant than the release implied: Harvard's relationship with the Memorial and the 12 acres of underdeveloped Harvard Square real estate that will be the Memorial's site had finally been partially defined.

It is now clear that the University's contribution to the Memorial will be great, both physically and financially. The new building, bringing under its roof all the facilities in Littauer plus the activities projected for the International Studies Center (it was scheduled to be about the size of William James), with room for an expansion of about one third, will cost something more than $12 million. In contrast, the three original segments of the Memorial momplex -- the Archive, the Museum, and the Institute of Politics -- will only cost between $10 and $13 million.

Harvard's cooperation has important implications for the Library complex, and specifically for the Institute of Politics. Ever since the President's death, the Kennedy family has sought to create a "living memorial," not just a monument--thus the emphasis on the Institute, which is supposed to bring the worlds of scholarship and politics closer together. But the Institute, for all the publicity, cannot stand on its own; at best, its existence merely constitutes a good excuse to do such things as bring senior government administrators and politicians (called 'associates') into Cambridge, or create a debating union modeled after Oxford's.

Institute Strengthened

Although it would have been run by Harvard, an Institute separated from Littauer might merely have been a center of periodic, if fascinating, activity. And even as a center in its own right, it would have suffered. When the senior associates came to Cambridge, would they have had where they would be speaking and holding seminars, to Littauer, where the Harvard faculty would be? Or would the professors have done the shuffling? Perhaps neither? How would the Institute's junior fellows -- men in their late twenties and early thirties staying at the Institute for an entire year -- have lived in these two worlds, with their offices at the Institute and their research and colleagues at Littauer?

Now, the Institute's physical facilities will be linked directly with Harvard's (the new John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Institute will probably be housed in the same building). The Institute's program will not have to stand by itself. It will be able to lean upon and support Harvard's broader effort, while simultaneously reaping the benefits of the huge segment of the University's activity that will now be shifted to the Library site. Besides the faculty and graduate students in the new building, large numbers of undergraduates should flock back and forth between the complex and the Houses or the Yard. Last year, for example, more than a fifth of the senior class majored in either economics or government, the two departments that will be housed on the site. Closely-related history concentrators made up nearly another 15 per cent.

Important Impact

For the Library complex as a whole, apart from the Institute, this "body-count" has a simple but fundamental impact. The Library's planners worried a great deal about integrating the Memorial with the surrounding community. If the problem were not suitably solved, the site might simply become a beautiful -- but hardly used -- memorial once the inevitable flood of tourists ebbed. With Harvard's new building, this distant prospect now seems unrealistic. (Another answer, advanced early and supported with great zeal by Mrs. Kennedy, was to create a lively, variegated commercial district of small shops, restaurants, and book stores that would attract and hold the local population of students, intellectuals and young professionals; one will have to wait for I.M. Pei's final masterplan to see how much this idea has survived.)

Advantages for Harvard

Last week's announcement brought advantages not only for the Library complex, but also for Harvard. They are all nicely summed up in one word: space. Specifically, the Littauer building will become available for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- possibly for the Charles Warren Center of American History. With a large lecture hall, library and lots of office space and seminar rooms, Littauer would be amply suited for the Warren Center. The prime building spot next to Littauer, originally planned for the International Studies Building, can either be used for an expanded Undergraduate Science Center or for another new building.

Moreover, the new government building will give the University added flexibility. It will be able to provide more library space, and this is important. Widener is nearing its capacity, and decentralization is one way to avoid building a major new library building, something a special study group recommended last year.

As one Harvard official put it recently: 'If we had turned down the chance to use land on the Library site, people would look at us 10 or 15 years from now and think we were crazy.'

II.

And yet, despite the huge benefits for both sides, the decision was not preordained. Month and months of difficult discussion preceeded last week's announcement. The views of the University and the Library Corporation were not always compatible, and, in the words of one Harvard man, 'there were times when I didn't think this would come off.'

President Pusey, at first, was not an eager proponent of the plan. To understand why, one must survey what Pusey has tried to do since taking office in 1953. He is a quiet, methodical worker with strong convictions, and nowhere is this style more evident than in the series of fund drives he has backed. He has undertaken them systematically, giving his personal attention one at a time to the different areas he feels need and deserve the most help. First, there was the $82 million Program for Harvard College, which built two new Houses, Holyoke Center, and William James Hall. In the early '60's, he concentrated on the $58 million Program for Harvard Medicine, and now he will work on the $49 million Program for Harvard Science. In addition, Pusey has also personally helped build up some of the smaller graduate schools, such as the Divinity School, the School of Design, and the School of Education, where he was acting dean for a long while.

Pusey characteristially proceeds in this careful way, and the proposal for the Littauer shift to the Library site was a major and unexpected disruption. It demanded scrutiny in light of the University's other priorities, and from Pusey's perspective, the existing commitments did not make the decision any easier. About to embark on the Science Drive, Harvard was already looking for about $100 million in other areas. Fund-raising had become increasingly difficult, and moving Littauer to the Library site would add $12 to $18 million to the total Harvard needed.

Pusey's caution contrasted with the eagerness of the Library officials to get the University's cooperation; they saw the immense contribution that Harvard could make to the complex. Here, at the beginning, was a source of tension.

Just as the Kennedy officials pondered how they could use the University to their best advantage, so also Harvard officials had to examine the question in reverse. How much was the Library complex to become an independent force, both in a physical and spiritual sense, and how much was it to become co-mingled with