Simple Ceremonies Install Pusey as President Today

Nathan Marsh Pusey will become the 24th President of Harvard University this afternoon in the Faculty Room of University Hall before a select group of about 200 invited guests.

The ceremony will follow the simple ritual used for the early Presidents of Harvard in pre-Revolutionary times.

As such, it will be in complete contrast to the lavish affairs of the 19th and early 20th century. The installation of A. Lawrence Lowell in 1909 climaxed the trend towards lavishness with a three-day affair before an audience of 13,000 people.

Guests

The invited guests at today's inauguration will include the governing boards of the University, alumni officers, the deans, representative faculty members, and 13 students representing the various schools and departments of the University.

The Governor of the Commonwealth and the mayors of Boston and Cambridge will also attend.

The plan of the inauguration will follow closely the short and simple ceremony used by John Leverett in 1707, and copied by President-emeritus James Byrant Conant in 1933.

In age-old tradition, the installation will take place in the presence of the symbols of the President's office--the College Charter of 1650, the Record Books of the College, and the College Seals and Keys.

The brief ceremony will consist of prayer by the University Preacher, a charge by the President of the Board of Overseers, a response by the new President of the University, benediction, and the singing of the 78th Palam.

Authority

After the relics of authority have been transferred to Pusey and the prayer has been given, the President will sit in the ancient President's Chair, centrally located in the faculty room.

The chair, a straight-backed, wooden affair, dates back to the administration of John Holyoke, who had it imported from England in 1750. It was first used in 1770 at the inauguration of Samuel Locke, Harvard's tenth President, and has been a part of the ceremony ever since.

The first meeting of the Board of Overseers will also be held today, before the inauguration, at which time he new President of the Board for the coming year will be elected.

President Conant's inauguration lasted less than an hour in 1933. Today's affair is expected to require about an hour and a half.

The only undergraduate guest today is Paul D. Sheats '54, president of the Student Council