Reagan's B-School Supporters Revel in the GOP's Landslide

With smiles as big as the profits they anticipate in the Reagan era, about 35 members of the Harvard Business School Reagan Committee celebrated the Republican landslide in a quiet and contented gathering at the B-School.

Douglas Cannon, the first year student who chaired the committee, began passing out cigars soon after NBC projected Reagan would win just after 8:00 p.m. 'We're suprised at the magnitude," Cannon said, "It's truly amazing."

Beer flowed in dignified quantities in the chandeliered common room of Chase Hall as Reagan's margin widened. Students preferred to muse philosophically about the nation's shift to the right--rather than speculate about how a Reagan presidency would effect their personal market values.

Susan Weber '79 said she voted for Reagan "reluctantly," mostly because she thought President Carter was a "complete and total idiot."

Another celebrant, Douglas Murphy '79, a first year student, said he found the Republican victory especially gratifying because "I lost seven cases of beer in '76 betting on Ford in Lowell House."

An analyst of defense industry stocks before he came to B-School, Carter Dunlap took a pragmatic view of the victory. "Talking to a stock analyst, it's going to mean a lot of money in the stock market very quickly." Between puffs on his stogie, Dunlap predicted "a more favorable environment for the businessman."

Cannon said he intensified the B-School Reagan Committee effort after the B-School's Political Forum found Reagan second in popularity among students. The poll said 31 per cent of the students supported Rep. John B. Anderson (R-Ill.), 30 per cent supported Reagan and 23 percent planned to vote for President Carter.

William Morris, a first year K-School student, took a serene view of the future--especially his own. Speculating on the effect of the election, he said, "I'm not sure what will happen to the country, but I was working closely with his people in California, so it'll mean a hell of a lot to me."