Retiring President Jordan Leads 'Cliffe Commencement Exercises

Retiring Radcliffe President Wilbur K. Jordan led outdoor ceremonies yesterday morning before 1200 spectators. In the record-breaking 96-degree heat, some 215 seniors, 149 graduate students, and 63 graduates of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration were awarded diplomas by the retiring President.

In the welcome "to the society of educated men and women," Commencement speaker Lewis Webster Jones, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, warned against over-emphasis upon perfection.

"You are not obliged, because you are Radcliffe graduates, to produce books and babies in alternate years, and shine in all the roles so confusingly available to modern women," he remarked.

Jones also called upon the new alumnae to help pioneer "in the solution of the human, intellectual, and moral problems of the over-developed society, notably our own." This, he stated, is the "task of American leadership" in the contemporary "Post-Modern Age."

"Most of you will live in huge cities or their suburbs. The pioneering job, therefore, is to make human life livable and rewarding under urban conditions ... we need the insight of the arts, philosophy and religion if we are not to become slaves instead of masters of our own powers," Jones concluded.

Miss Lucy Busselle of Everett House was awarded the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize, given to the member of the graduating class who, "during her whole course by her scholarship, conduct and character has given evidence of the greatest promise."

The Caroline I. Wilby Prize was awarded to Mrs. Roberta Fishman Colman of Cambridge for her honors thesis, "Studies on Discarboxylic Amino Acids."