Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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The Class of 1942 will be remembered as the last Harvard class to graduate in conformity with a plan of educa- tion which has been followed for more than a quarter of a century. Although some of its members left the university during the senior year for war service, and although the faculty has suffered some diminution in numbers from the same cause, most of the men in 1942 have been able to carry through the program of study which they had planned. To the members of future classes, who will find their opportunities for the leisurely pursuit of knowledge hampered by accelerated programs and a steadily shrinking faculty, the lot of 1942 will surely seem enviable. It may indeed be questioned whether the college will ever return to a schedule of two terms a year and a long summer vacation. The Class of 1942 leaves college for a world which faces what seem almost insoluble problems, but for the in- dividual, the immediate future presents only one question: what can I do to contribute most to the war effort and the peace which must follow? That the members of the class may find a satisfying answer to this question and to the many others that will confront them is the wish of all members of the faculty. GEORGE H. CHASE, Dean of the University University

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CORPORATION It took the young college, Harvard, only 14 years to learn that a small group must be responsible for administra- tion. The Board of Overseers, while fitted for more general decisions, was unwieldy, or unwilling to attend to the details of administration. In 1650, therefore, President Dunster petitioned the General Court for a charter. The charter set up the Corporation, a small and efficient group to supplement the Overseers. The First Colledge Booke, containing the minutes of the Corporation ' s first meetings, gives some idea of the scope of its powers. In these early days the Corporation seems to have been much concerned with the behaviour of the stu- dents. No schollar shall take Tobacco unlesse permitted by ye President with ye consent of their parents and guardians on good reason given by a Physitian. Freshmen shall not at any time be compelled by any Senior students to goe on errands or doe any servile work for them. Students wearing long hair after the manner of Ruffians and Barbarous Indians were to be disciplined. There is evidence that as far back as the seventeenth century the college was having biddy trouble. Concluded by the Corporation . . . that old Mary bee yet connived at to bee in the Colledge with a charge to take heed to doe her worke, undertake, to give content to the Colledge students. Under the heading Methods to Prevent Disorders at Commencements is ruled: Commencers not to have more than one gallon of wine. As a final example of thorough supervision, there ap- pears a searching inventory of the kitchen equipment, com- plete even to 1 old knife, verie rustie and 2 jugges, with- out lids battered. The make-up and powers of the Corporation have not changed in three centuries. It consists of five Fellows, the President, and the Treasurer. Three of the present Fellows live near Boston and two in New York, and, with the excep- tion of Dr. Roger I. Lee, all are lawyers. To a great extent the Corporation ' s procedure is informal and takes the form of dis- cussion followed by definite votes. The Corporation initiates all university legislation. In some cases its decisions are The Corporation plans general university policy, and has a mountain of detail to attend to