IN AUGURAL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Last year, when Columbia University acquired a new President, a number of lavish, expensive ceremonies were planned to celebrate the event. The President turned these down, and he allocated the money, which ran into tens of thousands of dollars, to student aid.

I think it would be both admirable and wise for Dean Bok and the University as a whole to forgo any such ceremonies this year. Dean Bok has already announced that the University faces a grave crisis in funding. Student aid programs, so often, are the first to be cut. What sense, then, could there be to a lavish, extravagant show of grandeur that Harvard can ill afford?