Pusey Sees Harvard's Structure As Security Against Violent Revolt

President Pusey said yesterday that he believes Harvard's administrative structure is not likely to provoke the kind of violent student protest that struck Columbia last week.

Pusey cited the single faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard, which works with all students from freshmen to post-doctoral. At Columbia, the undergraduate college has a separate faculty.

He also mentioned that Harvard's administration long ago delegated academic and disciplinary authority to faculty members. Columbia president Grayson Kirk and his board of trustees retain control over student discipline.

Pusey would not comment directly on developments at Columbia. He did not rule out the possibility of trouble here, but said, "I devoutly hope it won't happen."

"I don't see a major re-thinking of the Harvard administrative structure," Pusey said, "but we never stop thinking about it....To find effective means of getting student opinion has been a long-time problem."

'Magic Wand'

Dean Glimp said yesterday that "the university has no magic wand it can wave to counter-act the use of force."

"The university can't just sit helplessly while force is used against it," Glimp said. "Across the country, some degree of order is going to be necessary to work out deeply-held conflicts of interest."

He would not comment specifically on Kirk's decision to call the police in at Columbia, because he said that he only knows what he has read in the papers.

Faculty Responsibility

Pusey suggested that "Harvard is a more highly developed organism than some other universities. It is hard to find something called the separate administration. Everywhere you look, responsibility exists."

At most small colleges, Pusey said, the president "was everything and at many colleges he still is." But at Harvard, he added, "the faculty has the key responsibility."

Pusey admitted that student opinion "does not play as much of a role as we'd like," but he said it is more important than at a more centralized school.