'72 Survey Finds Money Equals Happiness

About 200 members of the Class of 1972 attended a symposium yesterday to discuss the results of their 25th reunion survey.

The alums repeatedly asked John W. Gorman '72, a professional pollster who was chiefly responsible for coordinating the class survey, for breakdowns of the data by gender, income level and profession.

The series of questions began with a woman who asked for a breakdown of quality of sex life by gender. Turning through a long document, Gorman found the figure and assured the audience that "there's no difference," between the sex lives of male and female graduates.

Another audience member asked for a breakdown of quality of sex life by profession. Meeting the challenge, Gorman said that people working in education fair the best in their sex lives, with 49 percent reporting very good or excellent sex lives.

Since 1992, the average number of children per graduate of the Class of 1972 had increased from 1.7 to 1.84.

In 1992, the average age of the Class of '72s children was nine. Five years later, as a result of the increased birthrate, the children seem to have found the key to eternal youth: Their average age is about 11.

Despite their many strides, such as being the first class to live in co-educational housing, women in the Class of '72 spend much more time caring for their children than do the men, according to Gorman.

"Obviously the traditional roles are still quite strong," Gorman said.

"Our class is demographically more similar to the Class of 1952 than the Class of 1992...we are overwhelmingly white and male," he said.

When the discussion turned to the Class' political bent, there was some protest from the audience.

Bonnie E. Blustein '72, who described herself as "left of liberal", said that she objected to the several questions on the survey.

"I started to fill it out. I was running into too many questions where I felt my answer did not fit the categories, especially the political questions," Blustein said.

Another audience member also voiced his opposition to the survey's questions. Both he and Blustein declined to hand it in.

Gorman acknowledged that the people who completed the survey were probably not an accurate cross-section of the class.

"We're pretty sure it is the same people [as in 1992]. About 200 more answered this year than the last time, probably because it's a more significant reunion," he said.

Gorman said that those who answered the survey were generally pleased with Harvard and interested in their connection with the University.

Gorman's mention of their satisfaction shifted the audience's focus. Members of the audience began to ask Gorman to correlate their assessments of their overall happiness to several variables.

Gorman said that people who are married with children tend to be happier than those without children, or those who are single or divorced.

The survey also seemed to show that money can buy happiness. Gorman noted a significant correlation between his classmates' incomes and their happiness. At the prompting of his classmates Gorman noted that there was no significant correlation between wealth and quality of sex life.

"But how many people were truthful on the questionnaire?" shouted one audience member.

"Shall we take a show of hands?" Gorman replied as his classmates burst into laughter.