An Interview With Pusey

To many undergraduates President Pusey is the single biggest mystery of Harvard University. Most of us amble through our four years and have only two opportunities to talk to him: once at the freshman tea as we go through the reception line and then a few years later during the question and answer period of a special House dinner. Otherwise, the private Pusey is unknown to us and we are forced to view the public Pusey alone, through the media and University News Office press releases.

Pusey's public accomplishments in terms of physically building up the University are impressive. He became President in 1953, and since then the annual Harvard budget has increased from $36 million to $176 million; the number of Corporation appointees has jumped from 2961 to 7357; and the number-of endowed chairs has more than doubled from 122 to 275. These are the sort of statistics Pusey most often points out when he talks of his years as President.

We read that Pusey is a figure of nationwide stature. During the national student strike Nixon picked him to lead a delegation of eight college presidents to discuss campus turmoil and its relation to the Nixon administration. Pusey is currently serving a two-year term as President of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and elite group of 42 universities in which he is now one of the senior men.

The outsider might have thought that Pusey would serve until the mandatory retirement age of 66. But on February 16, 1970, the Corporation accepted Pusey's resignation effective June 1971-two years early. At that time, Pusey stated:

"... It has always been Harvard's strength-rooted as she is in tradition-that she has never had any inclination to mark time. Her characteristic manner is to be continually making fresh starts. Those great classes of graduates-largely of the 1920's and 1930's-which have made my administration possible have in considerable measure now discharged their responsibility-especially perhaps those of the twenties of which I am a part. In any case the time has come for a renewed effort which will enlist the energies of many younger Harvard men...."

His statement implies that he has had some recent trouble behind the scenes in running the University. Students, faculty, and administrators generally upbraid him the most for his lack of personal contact with them and his handling of the April 9, 1969 University Hall occupation. Private pressures built to the point where Pusey felt his generation's time was up.

Not knowing what to expect, I went to Massachusetts Hall last month a few hours after an SDS demonstration, to make an appointment with Pusey. The outside door was locked. I knocked and a University policeman unlocked the door from the inside. The policeman questioned me in the small alcove, told me to wait there, and brought Pusey's secretary to me, locking us both in the alcove while we discussed our business. Pusey's secretary remained in the alcove until after I left via the outside door. She later telephoned and said that Pusey would see me in ten days, for the first exclusive CRIMSON interview in more than a year.

When I returned to Massachusetts Hall, a plainclothes University policeman ushered me into the reception room. At the precise moment the interview was supposed to begin, Pusey's secretary came out from an office further down the hall. She led me down the corridor to the corner office on the left. Plush red carpeting covered both the hallway and Pusey's office, which is spacious with an unusual, empty look to it.

Pusey was cordial but seemed slightly unnerved at the beginning of the interview. Our talk began ominously with his pointing to my tape recorder and saying "I don't talk into those things. You'll have to take notes." From there on in, he was friendly and answered most questions as directly as he could.

I asked Pusey what he considered his greatest accomplishments as President and which aspects of the job gave him the most satisfaction. He visibly loosened up and replied, "The way we have been able not only to maintain Harvard's standing but extend it. There have been introduced a number of new programs that were called for by the changing circumstances of our time." He highlighted the House courses, international programs, and developments in the arts, urban affairs, and environmental studies.

Pusey said he enjoyed "being able to find the support for these programs and finding the people to staff them. It's not my doing, really. It's been the work of all the faculties." He said he discusses "possible changes with the deans" and helps to find ways to put the programs into effect.

He is reputed to be a shy, modest man and did not elaborate on the frustrations of fundraising, cutting red tape, and getting people to accept new ideas. However, Pusey talked at length when I asked him what he considered his major blunders and which aspects of the job he considered the least pleasant.

After Pusey paused briefly and sighed, he said his major blunders "would obviously be in the area of mistakes in judgment about people." He said the least pleasant aspect of his job is "having to accept on this campus the kinds of activities the extreme radical groups have introduced the last several years. We've tried to make clear that people are entitled to have any opinions they want," Pusey said. But "certain actions that interfere with the actions of other people are totally unacceptable." He said that Harvard students "ought to be ashamed to be numbered among these self-righteous zealots."

Pusey said that "the idea of some people-that the University is a servile slave of a rotten society-is such a deep untruth that I don't see how anyone coming to Harvard can entertain such ideas." Referring to the leaders of the April 1969 University Hall takeover, he said, "In their starry-eyed view, they think they are leading a revolution in America. They're trying to radicalize all the people. This small group of people has lived in a world of fantasy. I don't think I can reason with these people."

He said that out of the 6000 Harvard and Radcliffe undergraduates, there are 50 or 60 hard core extremists instigating most of the student disruptions.

Pusey's choice of words seemed strange because he gives the impression of having a gentle demeanor. To hear him talking about "self-righteous zealots" and "starry-eyed radicals" seemed like language incongruent with the man himself. His judgment that one per cent of the undergraduates are responsible for most of the student demonstrations, and that the CRR might be able to weed them out, was reminiscent of the Joe McCarthy-type thinking against which Pusey fought so hard.

At noon on April 9, 1969. SDS took over University Hall-the central administration building of the Arts and Sciences Faculty. Deans in the building were hustled out and SDS issued six demands-three dealing with the abolition of ROTC and three concerned with Harvard's housing policy. Shortly after 4 p.m. that day, Dean Ford warned those remaining in the building that they would be subject to prosecution for criminal trespass.

That evening Pusey issued a statement saying "Can anyone believe the Harvard SDS demands are made seriously?" He said that the six demands were either already under consideration or were false issues. "How can one respond to allegations which have no basis in fact?" he asked at that time.

Pusey, in consultation with the Council of Deans and House Masters, decided to call in the police. At 5 a.m. on April 10, 400 police swept into the Yard and arrested the nearly 200 occupiers of University Hall. The police were generally considered brutal and 40 people, mostly bystanders, were treated at Stillman Infirmary and Cambridge City Hospital for police injuries. Pusey's action precipitated a two-week strike which became so serious that the Corporation threatened to close the University.

Asked what he would do if he could relive the takeover of University Hall in April 1969, Pusey said, "I would do what I did." Pusey said that "people voted against going into University Hall three times or so. The idea that they can force their ideas on the University community is hateful." He seemed to feel that historians will agree with his decision to use the police. Pusey has strong ideals but weak political acumen.

In regard to the ROTC issue, Pusey said, "The more Harvard men who get into the service of the government and the military, the better. People are so carried away now with the specific trouble in Southeast Asia that they've lost perspective."

Pusey emphasized that in April 1969, "the great majority of the Harvard community did not buy that thing and did not participate in the strike. They saw through the phoniness of it." Out of 15,000 students, he said that "the strike at its most extreme got only 3000 students. I still have confidence that the individual Harvard person has enough intelligence to see his way through these issues."

Pusey commented on the recent wave of student disruptions with a historical perspective and said, "I think this is new. I don't think we've ever had anything as extreme as this." He said that a sound educational program is the long-term solution. "These people have failed so miserably to feel the influence of our liberal education," Pusey said. "The experience of college ought to make learning attractive through its beauty. For some it does; for others it doesn't."

In regard to his lack of personal contact with members of the University community, Pusey said, "In the 1950's I was much closer to students. There's been that tremendous change. It's a sad thing from my point of view." He said that Harvard "is just such a big thing that no one man can have as much contact with any of these groups as he likes.' During the last two years, Pusey said he has had less time for the important activities of the University because of the attention that has had to be given to these disruptions."

One wonders what the cause-effect relationship is here. Have we had disruptions at Harvard in part because of the aloofness of the President's office? Or is the President aloof because of the added time he spends planning strategies to quell student demonstrations? Pusey seems to fear that if he gives some of his time to one student group, he will badly neglect the job of starting additional University programs and raising more money.

Widening his focus from the Harvard to the national scene, Pusey said, "Troubles on the campuses now really reflect troubles on the outside. It's not confined to trouble in any one campus or in any one country." He said that student discontent reflects "a deep dissatisfaction with the kind of life and organization that has been developed in the industrial world in the last 100 years. This kind of society doesn't have charm. We're yearning for something that seems more humane and satisfying."

This statement reveals more of the private Pusey-the sensitive, gentlemanly classics scholar who got saddled with the job of University President. Pusey is apparently unwilling to apply the statement he made about our industrial society toward understanding the reasoning of radicals. It does show, however, that he is caught in a bind between empathizing with those who think our society is indeed rotten, and thwarting the extremes of the radical movement. He has tried unsuccessfully to resolve the dilemma by yielding completely to the idea that free passage for everyone in the University community cannot for a moment be superceded by other issues. This, coupled with the belief that he can make no headway in talking to hard-core radicals, has caused an increasing degree of polarization at Harvard.

Pusey concluded the interview by expressing hope that in the future "universities will continue to be citadels for scholarship and deep understanding."

The interview lasted exactly 45 minutes. Pusey had a 3 p.m. press conference, and as we left his office, he cheerfully hurried down the hall and then clapped his hands a few times, exhorting his staff to get ready.

The philosophy and competence of Pusey's successor will largely determine this University's future. Perhaps the next President will put a higher priority on personal contact with members of the University community and less emphasis on budgetary growth. He should study the history of the Pusey administration, particularly the decision to call in municipal police in April 1969. Closer relations with students, faculty, and administration should help the next President to act during a University crisis with more sensitivity. Perhaps the next President will be able to reverse the current trend of polarization between undergraduates and the administration.