Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 25 text:

PRESHDEN' Learning muxt he adnaneed af well ax perpetuated. Indeed, in the laft analyfif it if only hy aduaneing learning that it if poffihle to perpetuate it. When knowledge ceasef to expand and develop, it hecomes deuitalized, degraded, and a matter of little importance to the prexent or future. The community lofef intereft, and the youth of the country rexpond to other thallengef. Ahle young men enlift in an enterpriye only If they are persuaded that they, too, may eontrihute hy creative work. A zeft for intelleetual adventure Jhould he the charaeteriftic of eoery uni11er,fity. James Bryant Conant, First Annual Report, 1934 41251-

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PRlESllDlElXllll IEMERHT S The college ought to produce, not dejifctiue Jjzecialixtx, hut men intellectually well rounded, of wide Jympathieer and unfettered judgment .... Surely the efxence of a liheral education contiltr in an attitude of mind, a familiarity with methods of thought, an ahility to ufe information, rather than in a memory ytoched with -l24l jQtct.v, howeiter ualuahle ,meh ez .vtorehouje may he .... The uniuerxity touchef the community at many pointy .... It if there that character ought to he Jhaped, that aljtirationy ought to he hrmed, that citizen! ought to he trained, and .vcholarly tattex implanted. A. Lawrence Lowell, Inaugural Address, 1909

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CQR QRAN When President Dunster got the General Court to charter the Corporation in 1650, he created a staid tradition as well as a solid foundation for future Harvard generations. The small group of seven replaced the unwieldy and unwork- able Board of Overseers as the guiding force behind everyday University life. And in this responsibility as in its form, it has remained unchanged through three vibrant centuries. The number of officers in the group has endured intact, but the work per man has grown with the University. Re- sponsible for most financial and legal matters affecting the University, the Corporation has duties as specific as granting fellowships and as comprehensive as granting approval. It has to approve just about everything. Special appropriations for specific objectives, departmental budgets, the issuing of degrees-all await a friendly nod. Even gifts to the college have to be approved and acknowledged. Filling in the spare moments come such minor details as the determination of The Corporation meets every few weeks to plan general Universi- ty policy. They are fleyi' to rigbtj: Henry L. Shattuck, Grenville scholarships and fellowships, and the appointments of instructors. Its decisions are generally final, but for some, such as the appointment of instructors and the bestowal of degrees, the Board of Overseers has the last word. Every year the work of the Corporation has had to expand to keep pace with University activities. Formulation of general University policy has presented the President, Treasurer, and five Fellows with a complex problem to wrestle with in their bi-monthly meetings. But if larger and more involved, the policy problem is no less vital and personal to the undergraduate than it was when the eighteenth century Corporation puzzled over untidy maids and unsober students. Thus back in December 1941, the Corporation echoed the student's opinion as well as exemplified unity and precision in dedicating all University resources to the winning of the war. Thus, ever since, it has worked to make real its pledge. Clark, Henryjarnes, President Conant,jeron1e D. Greene, Charles A. Coolidge, jr., Roger I. Lee, and William H. Clafiin, Jr. f x ..... 1261- -ug