Student Input Not Overseer's Priority

President-elect David L. Johnston '63 has declared two goals for his term at the helm of Harvard's Board of Overseers--but increasing student input in Harvard's often enigmatic governing process in not one of them.

Johnston will focus his efforts as president on information technology and on strengthening Harvard's relationship to the international community, he said in a recent phone interview from his office at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

Asked about Harvard students' role in the "overseeing" process, Johnston recalled two events he thought were worthwhile: three students presented their senior theses at the April Overseers meeting and, at that same meeting, Johnston and his wife dined with students at Quincy House.

But Johnston avoided advocating greater student input in the Overseers' decision-making process.

"I think that it's important to have lines of communication, but I don't think one should structure this like Martin Luther's 95 edicts," Johnston said.

For that same meeting, students prepared a packet of 15 articles for the Overseers from various campus publications dealing with issues such as Core reform, section size, minority Faculty hiring and the Alternative Senior Gift Fund.

The project's aim was to get the Overseers--the less powerful of Harvard's two governing boards--"to think more about undergraduate issues, to realize more the value of student opinion," according to Ian T. Simmons '98-'99, the project's coordinator.

Johnston's election was praised by other Overseers who cited his experience in academia and his knowledge of information technology as strengths he brings to the job. Johnston was the principal and vice-chancellor of McGill from 1979 to 1994 and is chair of the Advisory Council on the Information Highway to the Government of Canada.

"Johnston has faced the challenges of having run a major university and knows the challenges and the opportunities available to a major research university like Harvard," said Renee M. Landers '77, current president of the Board of Overseers.

"Johnston is a skillful and experienced academic leader with an unusually broad understanding of the challenges facing Harvard and higher education," President Neil L. Rudenstine said in a statement.

Johnston chairs the Overseers' committee on information technology and said that he hopes to continue to encourage Harvard "to craft [information technology] tools while making sure that the content is stimulating."

"Harvard has a lot of work to do in that area," Landers said.

Harvard first contacted Johnston when he was 14 years old as part of a recruitment program. A Dunster House resident, he played varsity hockey for two years and graduated from the College in 1963. He received a law degree from Cambridge University in England and a second law degree from Queens College in Canada. He currently teaches in the Medicine, Ethics and Law program at McGill University in Canada.

In addition to his work on information technology, as an Overseer Johnston has served on the board's Executive Committee and the standing committee on humanities and arts and helped with the Overseers' recent review of the visitation process, which assigns each Overseer to committees to evaluate Harvard's various organs on a rotating basis.

The Board of Overseers is second in importance only to the Corporation. The Corporation meets 15 times a year and approves all major policy decisions. The Overseers meet five times a year and serve mainly in an advisory capacity to the University

The project's aim was to get the Overseers--the less powerful of Harvard's two governing boards--"to think more about undergraduate issues, to realize more the value of student opinion," according to Ian T. Simmons '98-'99, the project's coordinator.

Johnston's election was praised by other Overseers who cited his experience in academia and his knowledge of information technology as strengths he brings to the job. Johnston was the principal and vice-chancellor of McGill from 1979 to 1994 and is chair of the Advisory Council on the Information Highway to the Government of Canada.

"Johnston has faced the challenges of having run a major university and knows the challenges and the opportunities available to a major research university like Harvard," said Renee M. Landers '77, current president of the Board of Overseers.

"Johnston is a skillful and experienced academic leader with an unusually broad understanding of the challenges facing Harvard and higher education," President Neil L. Rudenstine said in a statement.

Johnston chairs the Overseers' committee on information technology and said that he hopes to continue to encourage Harvard "to craft [information technology] tools while making sure that the content is stimulating."

"Harvard has a lot of work to do in that area," Landers said.

Harvard first contacted Johnston when he was 14 years old as part of a recruitment program. A Dunster House resident, he played varsity hockey for two years and graduated from the College in 1963. He received a law degree from Cambridge University in England and a second law degree from Queens College in Canada. He currently teaches in the Medicine, Ethics and Law program at McGill University in Canada.

In addition to his work on information technology, as an Overseer Johnston has served on the board's Executive Committee and the standing committee on humanities and arts and helped with the Overseers' recent review of the visitation process, which assigns each Overseer to committees to evaluate Harvard's various organs on a rotating basis.

The Board of Overseers is second in importance only to the Corporation. The Corporation meets 15 times a year and approves all major policy decisions. The Overseers meet five times a year and serve mainly in an advisory capacity to the University