A Hard Task to Master

"Each House is intended to comprise as nearly as may be a cross section of the residential membership of the College, to be selected by the Masters and their assistants" --President Lowell; 1926

In the days before 1930, when Abbott Lawrence Lowell instituted the Harvard House system, the wealthy graduates of the Eastern prep schools kept to themselves in the "Gold Coast" dorms. The "Gold Coast" ran along Mt. Auburn Street and up Bow and Linden, housing most of the student body in places like Claverly, West Morley, and Apley Court. Elliot Perkins '23 recalls rowing crew with "the lone one or two fellows from as far away as Idaho," as well as with prep school friends. "As we walked back up from the boathouse we would converse jovially and at length. However, upon arriving at the Yard, we would have to part in order to dine; I at my eating club and he's somewhere else because he did not belong to my club."

Lowell's chief objective in constructing the Houses was to end such elitism and draw together an increasingly fragmented community. A key element in his plan was the House Master, responsible for forging each Houses into a community-selecting every student resident for among interviewed freshmen, choosing tutors, and serving as a link between the President, the Corporation and the student body. The first Masters were appointed for life-or for as long as they could hold out. As Perkins, who served as Master of Lowell House from 1940 to 1963, remembers. "Being a Master was a career."

Though the position of Master has grown steadily less imposing over the years, no one has ever drawn up an official job description; instead, each Master is left to develop the role as he sees fit. Masters have traditionally left a definite stamp on the life of their Houses, despite the original intention of making each community a cross-section of the whole. Most early Masters used their considerable resources to support the numerous dinners, teas and other social events for which they were responsible. They also hand-picked all House residents according to their own conception of proper House makeup, though no House was allowed to accept a larger percentage of prep school graduates than existed in the class as a whole. (The same rule applied to each individual prep school; for instance, since graduates of Andover and Exeter accounted for a consistent 11 to 12 percent per class, only 11 percent of the vacancies in each House could be filled by Andover/Exeter graduates.)

"I saw Lowell House go from being one of the three most popular Houses to one of the last three. If you were low your feelings were hurt," Perkins recalls. He spent much of his tenure as Master stressing the House's role as an academic support system, knowing well that Lowell acquired a reputation as "the scholarly House."

John H. Finley '25, Master of Eliot House from 1942 to 1968, saw his responsibilities as upholding and demonstrating two ideals to which all Harvard men were expected to aspire: pursuit of higher learning and devotion to the College. He found his own academic work essential to maintaining this role.

"I always felt life for me was shaped like a shoehorn, as I helped ease [the students] into the next stage of their life. However much work and time I committed to encouraging and acquainting myself with the students in the House. I think I should've perished had I not kept up with my own work as well," says Finley, also Eliot Professor of Greek Literature emeritus, who remembers annually memorizing the face and name of every Eliot House incoming sophomore.

With the move to a freshman housing lottery, Masters lost direct power over their Houses' tones and reputations; though the differences in ambience remained. Masters so longer needed to take primary responsibility for shaping House life.

And though few House Masters today memorize facebooks, increased commitments-both bureaucratic and academic-often leave them less time for such direct House involvement.

William H. Bossert '59, Master of Lowell House, says he sees himself as a professor first and a Master second. At the same time, though, he recounts frequent winning and dining with students, tutors and other House associates, citing House teas every Thursday. High Table every other Monday night, and monthly Open Houses. Bossert also meets regularly with tutors and holds office hours four mornings and two afternoons a week.

The job of Master has become much more time consuming over the years says Charles F. Kletzsch '51 who has seen five Masters come and go in his 25 years as Dunster Houses's librarian and computer in residence. Kletzsch notes that the original idea of a model Master as a "great scholar" had to be tempered for reasons of practicality.

"If someone is truly a great scholar, he must be devoted to his own work, but being a creative scholar is time consuming in itself," Kletzsch says, adding that there are many more activities in the House now than there used to be.

Some Masters have had to curtail their professional work to accommodate House responsibilities John E. Dowling '57, Master of Leverett House and professor of Biology, can be found during the day at the labs. "I find teaching very stimulating," he says, but adds that in his year as Master he has had to cut down on speaking engagements and service on government committees. Likewise Warren E.C. Wacker, Master of South House and director of University Health Services has dropped clinical teaching.

Other influences besides time have conspired to drive Masters further away from day-to-day involvement of House life. With the demise of the interview system most Masters now see the recruitment and selection of tutors and Senior Common Room members as their strongest tool for shaping House life. Rather than financing their own teas and open houses. Masters now receive an average of $1000 from the College for entertainment, though many still dip occasionally into their own pockets to make ends meet. Two Masters say they have contributed up to $5000 of their own money toward food and alcohol bills.

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The turmoil of the late 1960s pulled Masters and the Mastership as an institution, in conflicting directions. With an ever-widening gap between students and administration. Masters found themselves caught between the two groups they were supposed to link, the nebulous nature of their job becoming more and more evident. The appointment of Derek Bok as President in 1971 offered an opportunity for considerable rethinking.

Under Bok, the Mastership was converted from a long-term commitment to a five-year, mutually renewable agreement. The change greatly enlarged the pool of people who would consider taking on the job, but some felt the move might hurt House stability and continuity.

Being Master "was very enjoyable, but it was taking time away from research and teaching," says Barbara G. Rosencrantz '44, who was Master of Currier House from 1974 to 1979. "Five years is a long time," she adds. David A. Aloian '49, who took over as Master of Quincy House this year from longtime Master Charles W. Dunn, says he may have changed the House's tone slightly by enforcing College alcohol rules more strictly, but that he has striven to keep continuity by adhering to Quincy House rituals like the fall Exorcism and the spring rose-planting.

The recent retirement of several senior Masters, including Dunn, Kenneth R. Andrews of Leverett, and Evon Z. Vogt this year of Kirkland House, has prompted both the administration and the Masters to take another look at the job of Master. This fall, Thomas A. Dingman '67, assistant dean of housing, compiled an unofficial list detailing the Master's responsibilities. Four areas emerged: providing educational leadership, setting a tone, handling day to day operations and representing the House externally.

Dingman describes educational leadership as consisting of recruiting, appointing and nurturing members of the Senior Common Room, overseeing House tutorials and seminars, ensuring sound management and pre-professional advising, and being regularly available to advice students. Setting a tone involves continual attention to the House as a living community hosting social events and supporting House extracurricular life Day today operations include attention to the budget and "crisis management." Finally, representing the House externally means keeping abreast of College policy, attending faculty meetings and acting as Bok's spokesman to students.

Masters still may accomplish these tasks in whatever way-they choose. But they now work within somewhat more of an administrative framework than in the past meeting once a week with Dingman and other College officials and discussing issues put forth by an executive committee. One issued discussed at length in this format was the fall's controversy over alcohol politely, when College officials' attempts to monitor alcohol at Halloween parties sparked debate over just now much leeway Masters should have in interpreting College policy.

The emergence of such "centralization" hurts the flexibility Masters have had in the past. Alan E. Heimert '49, Masters of Eliot House says, adding that Masters have traditionally enjoyed "a wonderfully benign neglect."

But House residents agree that Masters continue to exercise considerable indirect effect over the tone and image of their Houses, and some make specific efforts to enhance or modify House life. Dowling says he and his wife are trying to make Leverett House more informal, planning an outing to their home in Woods Hole for all sophomores next fall. Other innovations include jaunts to museum exhibits in Boston and a dinner for juniors because "we felt they were being left out a bit."

"We worked very hard to provide for the interaction between students and faculty which is supposed to occur in the House, and are disappointed that the students don't take more advantage of the opportunities," Dowling says.

But Loulan J. Pitre '83, co-chairman of the Dunster House Committee, expresses skepticism as to how much influence the Master should have. "The personality of the Master should not determine the personality of the House because students should have an opportunity to mold the community," Pitre says, adding, "Every year a new group of people moves into the Houses and a new community is forged."

Some feel though, that this philosophy can be carried too far. The problems with Mather House spirit her in the lack of imitatively by Master David Herlihy says a Mather resident who asked not to be identified, adding. "If there is a problem with the House they leave it up to the initiative of the students to solve it. They don't provide the role model they should." Herlihy describes his own position as a "ceremonial presence in the House" and says his goal is to "cultivate a friendly, accessible posture."

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The most recent major change which required all the Masters' cooperation was the integration of women into the River Houses in the early 1970s. This influx of women highlighted another issue which has recently received attention in the Masters' meeting - the question of the role of the Master's spouse.

Currently, all the Masters are male, although Barbara Rosenkrantz was Master of Currier House from 1974 to 1979. Eight of the Masters consider their position a "co-mastership." while five list their spouses as Associate Masters. However, the general consensus among the Masters is that the job is a joint effort.

"We look on the Mastership as an opportunity to do something together as a couple. Mastering is very much a team effort." James A. Davis, Master of Winthrop House, says. Although the role of the spouse varies from House to House. Davis feels that the two roles, the Master's and the spouse's, have become "much more egalitarian," although the formal power structure makes little allowance for this factor.

It is precisely the formal structure which has drawn recent attention, prompted in part by the complaint that while the Masters and even certain student members of the Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) can attend faculty meetings, the co-Masters and assistant Masters cannot. Dingman's attention to this situation stems from his concern for the "unfortunate message" which he sees being conveyed to undergraduate women.

"The co-Masters today are doing a terrific job. They are dedicated outgoing, energetic, caring people," Dingman says. However, he says, many of their important responsibilities like representing the House at meetings the Master cannot attend, are less visible than their work on entertainment and social functions.

The less aggressive involvement of Masters in their Houses may increase students' tendency to initiate activities or coordinate them with the Masters' efforts, creating more of a balance between the forces molding House life.

Nevertheless, Perkins observes, "Some Houses you go into, you wouldn't know whether the Masters are here or in Timbuktu. A Master if he is enthusiastic about the House, is infectious." Such enthusiasm, he says will remain crucial "if the Houses and the House system continue to be the elements essential to the preservation and strengthening of Harvard College."