Harvard University - Red Book Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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'- -n y In y El: ' m :1:- 22:2 2 J 25 -h... 1.5 5- ;1, i J? V garrison Europe or fight in Asia. And further- more one may be inclined, in picking a field of concentration, to pass over an interest in some more exotic subject in favor of one which may lead to draft-exemption. Thus, in many little ways, the draft sidled into our lives, and into the life of Harvard. The Ad- ministration anticipates a considerable drop in enrolment next year; board and room rates have gone up; the Outhouses will probably be closed lthis at least is one good consequence of the draft and the world situationl; henceforth Harvard will play Princeton only in major sports. The Jeremiahs among us could paint a black pic- ture of what Harvard might be like in a few years. Eliot House given over once more to the V-12s, as it was during part of World War II when Pro- fessor Nock was the only civilian in the House, and Eliot men were called, not Elephants, but sailors. Marching to classes. Professors all in Washington. Perhaps even no football. No longer :1: 23 d Li '1' .-I . AM; 1-3: It -,h l 33 .A.. l, f 2 a the pleasure of studying casually and without much of a purpose. The future, fortunately, will not be like this. Short of war, Harvard will not sag much below the level planned for 1951-52, and soon will begin to recoup some of the losses that it expects to suffer during next year. But even the changes planned, when coupled with the personal problems set by the draft, are enough to shake the average under- graduate, to stamp on his mind the distinctiveness of the year 1950-51. The seniors can be thankful that they have squeezed their four undergraduate years into just about the only period of llnormalcy22 at Harvard from 194-1 to the millenium. When they entered in 194-7 they were the first properly postw'ar class, for they were the first class to be mainly non-veteran. They leave now, the last class to have been mainly free of the draft. They saw the end of the old era: crowded classes, veterans wheeling children through the Yard, monster book- lines, and two-hour registrations. They have just

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a big worry. It dichft zltTect their idea of college very much because they knew they would be de- ferred at least until the end of the year, and alter that they would no longer be undergraduates. But for the remainder of the undergraduates, draft was more than a question of whether they could get a good fat desk job, though that aspect was not exactly neglected. T0 the freshman, the sopho- more, and the junior, the ramifications of the draft were far-reaching. College no longer seemed to be what it used to be, a four-year resting point on the road between youth and adulthood, a sort of hiatus in Which one could enjoy most of the pleasures of maturity with practically none of the responsibilities. In this old view, college had walls around it, was 21 distinct period 01' life to be enjoyed t0 the full before one cast a thought to what was to follow. The effect of the draft was to break down the bar- riers which separated college life from the rest of life and to merge the two. Now a man might be plucked into the army after a year or two in col- lege, and then returned after two years in the services. Or he might be given a test and escape for the duratiou of his studies. 01' he might have to remain in the top of his class to keep out of the services. Or this, or that. And what might happen to one was a minor problem compared to hunmn element. what one should do for oneself. Should one get married quickly, and start breeding children as a bulwark against General Hershey? Should one join the ROTC? Should one join a reserve unit, or a national guard unit? Should one start study- ing Mongolian in hopes of getting an Intelligence job? All these thoughts have had, and will continue for an indefinite number of years to have, a power- ful effect on the atmosphere of the college. They tend to push the undergraduate out into the world at an earlier age, to make college a subdivision of the outside world instead of a world unto itself. One can no longer attach so much importance to choosing a field of concentration, or a House, if one may any month he snatched up and sent to Some people,s Lamonteslressing books which emphasized the

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Center of the squareecorner of y Mass. and Boylston is more 1 familiar than Mem Hall. seen the beginning of the new era: every man a potential dra'flce. The fact that the Korean crisis arrived when the College was just completing deconversion from World War II added a touch of irony to the situ- ation. In the fall, only 4147 veterans registered in the College; Housemasters were hoping to decon- vert the last of their crowded rooms in the spring; Radcliffe had been successfully integrated into the Harvard educational tnot to speak of its sociaU system. The postwar problems were just about solved when along came a new crisis. Two or three years from now a new crop of veterans will no doubt be returning and the cycle will start again. Almost any way you looked at it this was the Science of the many.