Radcliffe College - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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W' -Q ab.. Allen County 1 .J 900 Webstat' S5131-. PO Box 22170 Fort Wayne, EN -bm nr- 1 r. 'F 1' 1-.H: l.a Nathan M Pusey and Judge Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., President of the Board of Over- seers following Pusey's installment as twenty-fourth President of Harvard University. Harvard's President Pusey, on September 24, 1953, greeted the class of '57 . . . The millenium will not seem quite so close to you perhaps as to some generations of college students. You are perhaps too wise, too close to those recently burned, to give yourselves quickly to easy enthusiasms. And yet it will be a tragic lack, and a very unwise kind of wisdom, if your generation feels no compelling urge to make the world over after its own heart's desire . . . Harvard is not a college limited in the reach of its influence, and entering here you become citizens of no mean city. This Univer- sity is now organically related to all parts and sections of our country . . . and it touches al- most every aspect of its life. Having chosen to come here, and in turn been chosen, it follows that your interests must grow patiently but steadily into commensuration with a vastly enlarged perspective. And it follows, too, that they must deepen . . . Harvard never subscribed to the heresy that you can learn without books. On the contrary this University can be said almost to be built of books. Our interest here is to read books, not to burn them, and if only you can learn to read books regularly, and will buy books whenever you can, your education will progress in a proper fashion and you will grow in spirit and understanding . . . lt is still true, if community life is to pros- per at any level, that from him to whom much has been given much will be required. And difficult as your coming here may seem to many of you and perhaps even more to your parents, it still follows that much has been given you, first by way of native endowment, and now in an almost unparalleled educational opportunity. And it follows too, that from the expectations of all those who have been here before us - the ones who during three hun- dred years built these magnificent educational resources and by their hopes and interactions forged here the spirit of a great university - much is now required of us, now and hereafter. You do not come to Harvard to exploit her for your own use, you come here to get know- ledge, to find fellowship at a high level - I would say also most especially to read - and to acquire the determination hereafter to serve greatly. May you all find happiness and ioy in this great enterprise. President of Harvard University