Overseers Call College Expansion Unavoidable

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences yesterday received copies of an Overseers' report which may prove to be one of the most significant contemporary documents to issue from this Governing Board, and may set the pattern for the future expansion of the College.

Issued by a distinguished Committee to Visit Harvard College, the report recommended: "that Harvard College should grow in response to the pressure of population; that the recruitment of faculty, in particular younger faculty and tutors, be urged forward; and that adequate new housing for both freshmen and upperclassmen be started soon to meet the fast-growing needs of a greater Harvard College."

Chaired by David Rockefeller '36, President of the Rockefeller Center for Medical Research, the five-man committee toured the College last spring. It centered its discussions around questions raised by the prospect of College growth, and issued a strong recommendation for increasing the size of the undergraduate body. The report went to the overseers early in May and was subsequently approved.

Significantly, the committee also proposed a special committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences be set up at once to examine further Harvard's responsibility in the face of rising admissions applications. It left no doubt of where it felt the College's responsibility lay.

No Withdrawal

"It will not do to say that Harvard College will concentrate on quality of education as a problem separate from large numbers, and leave the large numbers to the other colleges to handle as best they can. Such a decisions would simply withdraw Harvard from the main educational problem of our time: how to present a high quality of education to unheard-of numbers of able students.

"We are persuaded that Harvard ought to--and almost surely will-grow substantially in size in response to the numbers of young people seeking admission. . . . We are moved less by the fact of Harvard's growth in the past than by our sense that the educating large numbers of our young people is so enormous and no important to our country that no college for whatever reason, call afford to stand aside. . . . We hope that Harvard makes plans to add two or three Houses, and that the necessary advance steps are taken to build these Houses and to staff them, before the wave of population hits."

But how far and how fast should the College grow?

How Many Teachers?

"To a great extent," the Committee stated, "this growth depends on the problem of getting enough good teachers." Arguments that classes or departments may grow too large should not stand in the way, it reported, as these problems can be solved. "But it will not be easy to get all the good teachers we need. . . . We suggest that it is time for the colleges to join forces for a general attack on the problem of recruiting young men as teachers."

Turning to the Houses, the Committee viewed the 25-year-old experiment as a definite success. "We are aware of the official opinion that the Houses are over-crowded and that an important element of 'gracious living' has disappeared on that account. But we must report that on this score the undergraduates appear a good deal less concerned than the faculty."

The Committee emphasized the importance of House Master leadership in transforming House atmosphere. It continued: "To a great degree it is the young resident House staff member who must have more time and opportunity to mix with students. . . . No one who talks to students can escape the impression that the young resident tutor is the key person in the educational experience of a great many Harvard undergraduates. . . ."

The tutor would play an even greater role in any further expansion of the undergraduate body. "With greater emphasis on teaching qualities per se there will be a greater participation by the student in all the House has to offer who responds so enormously to just a whiff of personal interest. It is the man with communicable enthusiasm, not the library mole, who can make the major contribution to a House."

The committee proposed that teaching loads of tutors be carefully adjusted to leave time for additional students. It further suggested that the possibility of developing attractive fringe benefits for young faculty families be explored. For, it stated, "New House units can certainly be built, but the important question is whether they can be properly staffed." In answer, it hazarded a guess that, "in a faculty numbering nearly 300 permanent members, nearly 100 on term appointments and some 500 junior members on one-year appointments, there will be found teachers to accept the challenge of staffing new Houses."

Nor should the problem of crowding in the Yard be overlooked. The Committee raised the eventual possibility that the freshman class may grow so large that it will no longer be able to be handled effectively as a unit.

Serving with Rockefeller on the Committee were: John Mason Brown '23, noted lecturer and drama critic, Joseph S. Clark, Jr. '23, Mayor of Philadelphia, John W. Hallowell, Jr. '31, headmaster of Western Reserve Academy, and Lawrence Terry '21, headmaster of Middlesex School