Harvard as number one

The times they are a-changing.

At the turn of the century, higher education in America made a dramatic transformation as it began to emulate the research universities of Europe. Harvard, never one to be left out, made the switch from a college to a university under the visionary leadership of President Charles W. Eliot, Class of 1853, and thus ensured its preeminence for the decades to come.

After the Second World War, American higher education was again made, as the GI Bill made it possible for many more Americans to attend college than ever before and as the government began to invest in basic research. Harvard recast itself under then-President James B. Conant '14 to become--as it had not been before--a meritocratic institution drawing on a national student base, and the centuries-old school showed itself to be the leader among America's new system of higher education.

If Neil L. Rudenstine, today's Harvard president, is to be believed, his tenure in office will be no less important than Eliot's or Conant's. Higher education, he contends, is again at a crossroads, and Harvard must once again radically rethink the way it operates in order to keep up with changes in academic pedagogy.

"This is a profoundly transformative moment in higher education in America," Rudenstine says. "Since 1970 at least, the system has been built and the fundamental structure has not shifted in any significant way...All of a sudden, the world is a whole new ballgame."

Harvard came first in America and has led since the 17th century. Its prestige today seems as strong as ever-the number of students who accepted Harvard's admissions offer climbs to a new high every year (80 percent in 1999) and far outpaces that of other top universities.

"It's very evident Harvard is the brand name in higher education to a much greater degree than can be explained rationally, given the excellence of other American universities," says Dean of theCollege Harry R. Lewis '68.

"When I went to this College we talked aboutHarvard and Yale in the same breath," Lewis says."Now, when they do that Fed Ex ad where the guydelivers the admissions letter to the pool man 30years too late, it wouldn't be funny if it saidYale."

But whether the prestige of three and a halfcenturies will withstand the changes nowpercolating in higher education remains to beseen.

What is clear is that nothing at Harvard issacred. The who, what, when, where and how of theHarvard education is very much up for grabs.

The scale of operations needed to run auniversity, the information revolution, thegrowing demand for educational programs formid-career professionals and brand new fields ofinquiry in complex, interdisciplinary topics alllook to change higher education in ways that couldmake it virtually unrecognizable to scholarstoday.

Harvard officials may well find that theirgrandiose vision cannot be realized, at least tothe extent they now imagine. The University'sdecentralized set-up--in which the president andothers charged with overseeing the wholeUniversity have minimal power to makecomprehensive change--will make it difficult toput many of the planned innovations into place.

In the 21st century, Harvard will need toreconcile its vision for applied education withthe theoretical approach that is today thehallmark of the way the University pursuesveritas.

MIGRATING SOUTH: WHERE HARVARD WILLTEACH

As the University continues to grow,adding new buildings and programs and attemptingto lower student-teacher ratios, officials havecome to the conclusion that even Harvard's campuswill have to be reconsidered to allow theUniversity to keep up with its educational goals.

The recent controversy over the building of theKnafel Center for Government and InternationalStudies has made one reality apparent toUniversity administrators--Cambridge isn't bigenough to hold Harvard.

The University's committee on physical planninghas already begun to investigate the possibilityof relocating the University's Cambridgeprofessional schools--the Law School (HLS), theKennedy School and the School of Education--to the52 acres of undeveloped land Harvard bought inAllston during the 1980s.

"Development in Cambridge has become verydifficult," says Sandra S. Coleman, administrativedean at HLS and a member of the physical planningcommittee. "Allston," she adds, "wants us."

For Jeremy R. Knowles, dean of the Faculty ofArts and Sciences (FAS)--the only Harvard schoolthat would remain in Cambridge if the professionalschools moved--making use of the land evacuated bythe professional schools would not be difficult.

"We must maximize out use of every piece ofland in Cambridge," says Knowles.

Harvard's governing boards are sympathetic toKnowles' desire for more land.

"There's nothing to persuade us that theCollege and its libraries couldn't fan out andtake over that space," says Charlotte H. Armstrong'49, the outgoing president of University's Boardof Overseers.

Plans for such a move are preliminary--thecommittee has been examining several differentpossibilities for how to make use of the Allstonland and any such moves would take place over thenext 25 to 30 years, Coleman says.

The newly reformed Radcliffe Institute coulduse some of the land left by a reshuffling, andsome of the professional schools might staybehind.

Harvard will continue to grow, officials say,and the pursuit of a much larger University hasmade one reality perfectly clear: as Coleman putsit, "We're out of space in Cambridge."F-12INNOVATIO

"When I went to this College we talked aboutHarvard and Yale in the same breath," Lewis says."Now, when they do that Fed Ex ad where the guydelivers the admissions letter to the pool man 30years too late, it wouldn't be funny if it saidYale."

But whether the prestige of three and a halfcenturies will withstand the changes nowpercolating in higher education remains to beseen.

What is clear is that nothing at Harvard issacred. The who, what, when, where and how of theHarvard education is very much up for grabs.

The scale of operations needed to run auniversity, the information revolution, thegrowing demand for educational programs formid-career professionals and brand new fields ofinquiry in complex, interdisciplinary topics alllook to change higher education in ways that couldmake it virtually unrecognizable to scholarstoday.

Harvard officials may well find that theirgrandiose vision cannot be realized, at least tothe extent they now imagine. The University'sdecentralized set-up--in which the president andothers charged with overseeing the wholeUniversity have minimal power to makecomprehensive change--will make it difficult toput many of the planned innovations into place.

In the 21st century, Harvard will need toreconcile its vision for applied education withthe theoretical approach that is today thehallmark of the way the University pursuesveritas.

MIGRATING SOUTH: WHERE HARVARD WILLTEACH

As the University continues to grow,adding new buildings and programs and attemptingto lower student-teacher ratios, officials havecome to the conclusion that even Harvard's campuswill have to be reconsidered to allow theUniversity to keep up with its educational goals.

The recent controversy over the building of theKnafel Center for Government and InternationalStudies has made one reality apparent toUniversity administrators--Cambridge isn't bigenough to hold Harvard.

The University's committee on physical planninghas already begun to investigate the possibilityof relocating the University's Cambridgeprofessional schools--the Law School (HLS), theKennedy School and the School of Education--to the52 acres of undeveloped land Harvard bought inAllston during the 1980s.

"Development in Cambridge has become verydifficult," says Sandra S. Coleman, administrativedean at HLS and a member of the physical planningcommittee. "Allston," she adds, "wants us."

For Jeremy R. Knowles, dean of the Faculty ofArts and Sciences (FAS)--the only Harvard schoolthat would remain in Cambridge if the professionalschools moved--making use of the land evacuated bythe professional schools would not be difficult.

"We must maximize out use of every piece ofland in Cambridge," says Knowles.

Harvard's governing boards are sympathetic toKnowles' desire for more land.

"There's nothing to persuade us that theCollege and its libraries couldn't fan out andtake over that space," says Charlotte H. Armstrong'49, the outgoing president of University's Boardof Overseers.

Plans for such a move are preliminary--thecommittee has been examining several differentpossibilities for how to make use of the Allstonland and any such moves would take place over thenext 25 to 30 years, Coleman says.

The newly reformed Radcliffe Institute coulduse some of the land left by a reshuffling, andsome of the professional schools might staybehind.

Harvard will continue to grow, officials say,and the pursuit of a much larger University hasmade one reality perfectly clear: as Coleman putsit, "We're out of space in Cambridge."F-12INNOVATIO