NO INSTRUCTION

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It is quite understandable that the Harvard deans and masters interviewed by your reporter in your front page story of December 20 should have expressed themselves as they did concerning Harvard and the Rhodes scholarship selections this year.

Yet as one who served on the Massachusetts and New England selection committees, I believe these impressions are somewhat in error. The selection committees received no instruction or intimation, either written or verbal, from the American office of the Rhodes Trust at Swarthmore regarding last year's heavy Harvard representation. The sole criterion now and always is that of selecting the best men in terms of the Rhodes specifications.

The Massachusetts committee considered eight Harvard men, and included one of them in the two nominations we are permitted. The New England committee elected him. Barry I. Forman '66. What happened in other parts of the country I do not know. I doubt if committees acted on any different basis than we did. The members of the Harvard class of '67 whom we interviewed were very able people: Rhodes applicants almost always are. The choice is quite difficult. In my experience in serving on selection committees for some 20 years, there is no outside pressure on us. The selection process is remarkably free from lobbying of any kind.

The selection committees have a tough job which I am sure we do not always do well. We must seek to weigh a great many imponderable factors. But these factors relate strictly to the individuals, and not to their colleges. The wonderful thing is that there is so much outstanding talent and character in so many different places.

The Harvard candidates have always been strong, and they were this year. It so happened that our committee in Massachusetts set other applicants above a second Harvard candidate. I expect this is what happened around the country. I hope so, because any effort to parcel the scholarships out among different colleges and universities would be utterly wrong. Erwin D. Canham, Secretary   Mass. Selection Committee   The Rhodes Scholarship