Commencement, School Fill Summer; Wilson, Austin, Wilder Get Degrees

Most of the University's thousands of returning students quickly left Cambridge during the first two weeks of June after their last exam, but during the long summer vacation, much occured at Harvard.

2,961 Receive Degrees

The University handed out 2,961 regular degrees at its 300th Commencement this June 21 including 1,003 for the College, 526 for the Business School, 495 for the Law School, and 145 for the Medical School. One hundred and ninety-eight men received doctor of philosophy degrees.

Fourteen honorary degrees were also awarded at the morning ceremonies; among those cited were:

Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Warren R. Austin, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany John J. McCloy, Cambridge City Manager John B. Atkinson, University Librarian Keyes D. Metcalf, President of the University of North Carolina and former Army Secretary Gordon Gray, Poet Wallace Stevens '01. Ninety-year old alumnus Godfrey Cabot '82, Writer Thornton Wilder, and U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and former President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company Walter S. Gifford '05.

Excerpts from Thornton Wilder's talk at the alumni exercises on Commencement afternoon appear on page 13: sections of Ralph Barton Perry's Phi Beta Kappa address, delivered on Monday of Commencement week, are printed on page 12.

The citation for Wilder read: "A versatile writer whose dynamic talent constructs bridges for young and old from our town to the timeless land of poets." The citation for Gifford closed with "...having enabled the American people to speak around the globe, he is now their spokesman in a distant capital."

This year's Commencement will be remembered by some University officials for having been the fastest. Degree recipients went towards and away from the platform at a rapid clip with constant prodding to keep moving. Reason for the speed was the 33-minute delay in the start of the exercises while Governor Paul Dever worked his way through Boston and Cambridge traffic.

Alsop Elected Overseer

Washington columnist Joseph W. Alsop '32 led the five alumni who joined the Board of Overseers at the June Commencement. The Overseers, elected by graduate vote, are the supreme governing board of the University.

Other men chosen were Charles E. Wyzanski '27, a federal district court judge: Elliott Dunlap Smith '13, provost of Carnegie Tech; Marion B. Folsom, treasurer and a director of Eastman Kodak; and Arthur W. Page '05, a public relations consultant and a former vice-president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

Just under 14,700 alumni voted out of a total of 56.812 qualified to cast ballots. Alsop received 8,874 votes in the field of ten candidates for the five posts.

Crews Sweep Over Yale

Tom Bolles ended up his career as Harvard crew coach in a manner that was typical of his 12 coaching years. For the eighth time the Crimson crews won all all four races against Yale in the June classic.

In the four-mile grind, the Yale varsity was favored to win, but the Crimson scored the "upset" that so many expected. Both crews started at 32 and then dropped to 31. After the half-mile Yale started to creep ahead, but just before the two-mile mark the Crimson caught them.

By the three mile mark Yale was very ragged and Harvard had a good lead, finishing 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Yale.

Nine Splits With Eli

The fortunes of the Crimson baseball team declined sharply as the Commencement week proceeded. On Monday June 18, the team beat an Eli squad 13 to 8 in hostile New Haven, but this was followed by two defeats--the latter, one of the worst in years.

The Crimson's mistake was in trying to play three games in three days, but the Tuesday encounter with Princeton was a postponed one, and its rescheduling allowed the Tigers to clinch the Eastern Intercollegiate Championship.

Princeton won 6 to 2, and the only Crimson consolation was its triple play that wiped out the Princeton side in the second inning.

Harvard fell apart on Wednesday when it lost 22 to 8 to Yale on Soldiers Field before a Class Day crowd that could not stand the proceedings and began walking out early.

Harvard-Yale Harriers Lose

The Harvard-Yale track team lost to a combined Oxford-Cambridge squad 9 events to 4 on June 23 in London. Three Crimson men scored firsts to pace the U. S. squad. The English now lead in these international contests with eight wins, seven losses, and one tie.

The Crimson's Ronald Berman scored the only American win in the running events when he came from last at the end of the first lap to catch a Cambridge opponent at the tape in a 1:54 half-mile.

In the field events Bob Mello took the pole vault with 13 feet, 3 inches, while Allen Wilson captured the shot put with 47 feet, 5 3/4 inches.

2,775 Attend Summer School

About 2,775 students passed the warm months in Cambridge, studying for hour exams and rushing to Lamont to keep cool. Of the total, approximately 1,440 were from Harvard and Radcliffe. The whole enrollment was an increase of 125 over last year.

The students came from 175 different universities, and for the first time in many years a majority of the faculty was made up of regular Harvard staff members, such as Charles R. Cherington '35, associate professor of Government, and Oscar Handlin, associate professor of History.

About 60 visiting instructors also taught at the school; these included poet Pierre Emmanuel, economist David McCord Wright, critic John Crowe Ransom, History professor Hans Kohn, and foreign policy expert Hans J. Morgenthau.

Highlights of the summer were four conferences on science today, "Philosophy and the Culture Crisis," the "Philosophical Bases of Literary Criticism," and "Mobilization and National Security."

These meetings brought leading speakers to Cambridge including Karl T. Compton, former president of M.I.T., Jacques Maritain and Hu Shih, both of Princeton, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge '24, and Manly Fleischmann '29, director of the Defense Production Administration.

15 Niemans Selected

Names of 12 American newspapermen who won this year's Nieman Fellowships were announced in late June. For the first time, three associate fellows were appointed from newspapers in Canada, Australia., and New Zealand.

This is the 14th group of Nieman Fellows awarded a year of study at Harvard since the fellowships were established from the money left by the widow of the founder of the Milwaukee Journal. One hundred fifty-eight persons have held the fellowships in the first 13 years, to pursue studies of their own choice for background use in their journalistic work. The men get leaves of absence from their papers.

The 1951-52 winners are:

Robert W. Brown, editor, Columbus (Ga.) Ledger; Robert S Crandall, Sunday editor, New York Herald Tribune; John Davies, Jr., reporter, Newark News; William F. Freehoff, Jr. editor, Kingsport (Tenn.) News, Joseph Givando, reporter, Denver Post: John M. Harrison, associate editor, Winston Salem Sentinel: Robert W. P. Martin, war correspondent for Columbia Broadcasting System, Korea: Charles Molony, Washington bureau. Associated Press: Lawrence K. Nakatsuka, assistant city editor, Honolulu Star-Bulletin; John L. Steele, Washington bureau, United Press: and Kevin R. Wallace, reporter, San Francisco Chronicle.

The three Nieman associates for 1951-52 are:

Shane MacKay, legislative reporter, Winnipeg Free Press: Edmond W. Tipping, chief of staff, Melbourne Herald; and H.J.E. Kane, chief reporter, Christ-church (New Zealand) Press.

The fields the men will study range from "industrial and economic problems of the Rocky Mountain region" to psychology and sociology, but most of the work will be done in the area of government and economics. With the exception of one 25-year-old fellow, all of the men are in their 30's.

Science Deans Named

A new deanship has been created to direct the work in applied sciences, and John H. Van Vleck, Hollis Professor of Mathematics, is the first man to fill the post.

Also promoted in July was Albert Haertlein, McKay Professor of Civil Engineering, who was made associate dean of Applied Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The new deans will carry forward a reorganization begun under Gordon M. Fair, who has served for the past two years as chairman of the Division of Engineering Sciences.

The immediate assignment is to expand the work in applied sciences and engineering along the lines outlined in a special report commissioned by President Conant. Vannevar Bush headed the group which urged a broader training for scientists "to become leaders in an expanding economy based increasingly upon the utilization of science in an economic manner for human needs."

Institute Records Courses

Tape recorders were standard equipment at the Summer School as the Lowell Institute recorded a number of summer courses for rebroadcast when its new educational FM station opens full operation this fall.

Among the classes the institute recorded were Pierre Emmanuel's "The Tragic Sense in Modern Literature," Hans Kohn's "Nationalism in International Relations in the 20th Century," Hans Morgenthzu's "Principles of International Politics," and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin's "The Solar System and its Evolution."M-17WILLIAM YANDELL ELLIOTT directed the University's Summer School for the second year and taught Government 1a besides fulfilling his administrative duties. Last summer he participated in the conference on the "Defense of Poetry," and this year he was one of the members of the panel that discussed "Philosophy in our Culture Crisis."