Henry R. Norr '68 for Overseer

HENRY R. NORR '68 has announced his candidacy for the Board of Overseers. In so doing, Norr is attempting to give undergraduates and younger alumni a voice on one of Harvard's most important administrative bodies. He should be supported.

The Board of Overseers approves all Corporation appointments, including that of new presidents. It also prepares reports on various problems within the University, and in general watches over the long-term development of Harvard, both as a corporation and as an educational institution. Until now, the Overseers have been almost exclusively older alumni, nominated in recognition of philanthropic or other achievements, rather than because of any intimate knowledge of the problems of a University which they left many years ago.

But the reports and the actions of the Overseers do affect undergraduates and younger alumni. The most significant example of this is the Overseer's role in selecting a new president of Harvard. Especially in view of events on other campuses this spring, it would be most undesirable for Harvard's next president to be chosen without any consideration of younger opinion. Norr's election wil help to ensure that this opinion will be heard.

In his term as head of the Harvard Policy Council, Henry Norr has demonstrated an ability to work with students and administrators to achieve important academic reforms. Pass-fail courses are only one of the major innovations which he leaves behind in Harvard College. Norr is well-qualified to represent student sentiment on the Overseers, and there is every reason to believe that he will prove an able and energetic member of the Board.

The election of a younger alumnus to the Overseers, although a new departure, is by no means a revolutionary one. The question is not whether or not students should run Harvard, but simply whether they have a right to be heard at all. Henry Norr's election to the Overseers will give students and younger alumni an articulate voice in matters which are of concern to all Harvard men.