Alumni Lobby for Harvard Stamp

Don't you think Harvard deserves a little more recognition for being the oldest university in the country.

Sixty seven Harvard alumni associations from across the country do, and are undertaking a campaign to pressure the Postal Service to issue a commemorative stamp to celebrate the University's 350th anniversary in 1986.

"The Postal Service has honored some of the newer schools before, now it's time that if honored the oldest," said Jay Murley '57, president of the Harvard Club of Orange County, Calif, who began campaigning for the stamp earlier this year.

The current campaign to issue a Harvard stamp, however, is not the first, said David A. Aloian '49, executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association, which petitioned for a commemorative anniversary stamp several years ago.

At that time, the Postal Service rejected the Alumni Association's proposal, citing a 1971 regulation which prohibits commemorative stamps celebrating college anniversaries.

Before the new stipulation ways enacted, the Postal Service had issued stamps honoring other universities including Columbia, Michigan State. Dartmouth and Princeton.

"We now discourage honoring specific schools for fear of setting a precedent of having to honor every other school. And a lot of schools are having anniversaries now," said Joseph B. Brockert. Senior Stamps Programs Specialist at the U.S. Postal Service who supervises the selection of commemorative stamps.

But, he added that a stamp which commemorates the 350th anniversary of higher education in America--and not specifically Harvard--is a possibility.

"We are also trying for a stamp that would celebrate great Harvard names such as President Eliot, not the University as a whole," said Aloian.

The Postal Service issued a stamp honoring Eliot in the 1940's, he added.

Because of its widespread support, the current alumni stamp campaign might be more successful than the first, which was based solely in Cambridge, said Aloian.

Stamp supporters are also hopping the 50 Harvard alumni in the U.S. Congress will support the measure the pressure the Postmaster General for its approval said Murley.

"It's time for us all to work together to get a Harvard stamp. If we don't do it now, Lesley College and Pine Manor will have a stamp before we do," he added.