Once Upon A Time

MARCH 28 MARKED the 25th anniversary of Harvard Day, a phenomenon that remains testimony to the University's lost cultural preeminence. On that day, a major fundraising campaign in the Northeast kicked off with a radio show entitled "The Case for the College" Broadcast nationwide on CBS and NBC radio and worldwide on Voice of America and Armed Forces Radio Services, the show solicited contributions from Harvard alumni and society at large.

An odd hybrid of public radio and television evangelism, the show could have been carried off only by Harvard. Imagine a college clogging the airwaves for an hour to ask for $82.5 million. "Harvard College needs your support, your interest, and your continuing concern. And it needs liberal investments of your money," said then-President Nathan M. Pusey '28. The plea was camouflaged among affirmations of the need to support colleges in general: "Not just the quality of American education but the strength of the American people is going to be second-rate," warned Alexander M. White, chairman of the fundraising drive, which was dubbed "A Program for Harvard College."

What is most flattering to Harvard is that the broadcast succeeded. The campaign rolled along on schedule, reaching its goal in early 1960 with a final $2.5 million gift from Harvard S. Vanderbilt '07. The broadcast was so impressive that even the president of Minesota's Carleton College kicked in $100, according to a recent Harpers's article.

The reason for such success is simple Despite its arrogant presumptions, the broadcast did capture much of "the Harvard experience." "The first time I read Max Weber I thought I might as well pack up and go home," said one of the many anonymous students interviewed on the show. "I think the basic problem with freshman year," another added, "was the fact that I was being taught by many men whom I considered to be clods." Luminaries like then-Senator John F. Kennedy '40, then-Secretary of State Neil H. McElroy '25, Robert Frost, who attended Harvard from 1897 to 1879. Leonard Bernstein '37, John P. Marquand '15, and Alan Jay Lerner '40 appeared on the show, giving the distinct impression that if you go to Harvard, you're sure to hit it big.

None of this should be surprising: Harvard is notoriously good at calling on its alumni in times of need. What is surprising is that radio networks were moved to assist it so enthusiastically. Harvard paid for the original March 28 broadcast on CBS, but the NBC rebroadcast on April 29 was "an unpaid-public service program." The fundraising plea, so flimsily masked as an argument for American colleges in general, fooled a national radio network. Why? The $82.5 million drive was something of a news event. It was unprecedented for a college or for any public institution, explains Communications Director of Harvard's current $350 million fundraising campaign Joseph G. Carr Radio airtime, relative to other forms of media exposure, was considerably less expensive in 1958 than it is now. And the future of American colleges was a pressing concern--only, recently come to prominence--in the post-Sputnik, pre-Mercury days.

BUT MORE than anything else the show is a tribute to the 1950s' unquestioning acceptance of Harvard's stature. In contrast, the present Campaign is being handed no free publicity. A series of regional "kickoff dinners" in the last two years has reached most alumni, Carr says. Harvard fundraising, it seems, can no longer impose itself unexpectedly on radio listeners unrelated to the University. The complexity of the current Campaign--which "lends itself better to print journalism," says David W. Johnson '68. Publicity Coordinator--the high cost of radio airtime, and the fact that giant fundraising campaigns are now commonplace all help to explain why, in Carr's words, "rather than take to the airwaves, we took the campaign out on the road."

But underlying that explanation is a fundamental change in the educational hierarchy. Then, there was no problem whatsoever with having Harvard represent American colleges in general. Now, Carr says, if a radio station gave Harvard an hour-long plug--a highly unlikely occurrence--"then a lot of other institutions would expect the same for them." And rightly so.

Fundraising campaigns for higher education are by now a familiar reality, and an era has passed. Arguments equating the quality of colleges with future American strength are still true: indeed, with financial aid sources endangered, they are heard more and more frequently. But Harvard's particular financial needs and the nation's diverged long ago. Although there will always be Harvard fundraising campaigns, even the University will probably never again muster the arrogance to call its requests for money a public service.