Class of 1946 Considers Past, Future of Harvard

The College must balance elitism with accessibility and the classic liberal arts tradition with a push toward pre-professionalism, panelists said yesterday at a 50th Reunion symposium on "Harvard Today and Tomorrow."

"What I liked about [Harvard] was the sense of openness and the sense of possibilities," said DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. "It means a chance to be with the best and brightest from...across the world, to be with people from places I had never even dreamed of visiting."

Gates said he chose to become an academic over the objections of his parents, who wanted their son to be a doctor or lawyer, because books and the pursuit of knowledge provided a refuge from racism.

"The challenge is to preserve all the best...in my own education," Gates said, "to take students...and give them their head, to say 'This is how I see it; how do you see it?,' [to teach them] to love and cherish the pursuit of knowledge."

But other panelists said that Harvard has drifted from its tradition of knowledge for its own sake.

"I thought Harvard would be an intellectual mecca of sorts.... I hoped there would be more that students can have a common discussion over," said Sarah J. Schaffer '97, who is editorial chair of The Crimson. "People treat extracurriculars as classes and classes as extracurriculars.... Harvard is increasingly preprofessional."

But Gates said there is one place Schaffer can find the classic traditions. He said sherry is still served in the offices of Afro-American Studies Department.

"It's recommended for diversity," Gates said, "but we're not throwing

out the best of Western Civilization with the bathwater."

Schaffer said she suspected that members of the Class of '46 were less likely to feel a pressing need to go straight to law school or medical school after graduation than are students today.

Daniel G. Yankelovich '46-'48, a professional pollster, attributed this preprofessional trend to changes in the American economy and American psyche.

"Americans have had a psychology of rising expectations. Over the past couple of years that has changed to a psychology of lowering expectations," Yankelovich said. "The majority of the public is deeply concerned about job security."

"It is that sense of high anxiety that leads directly to the safety of the preprofessional routes," he said. "The parental attitude today is that [a classic liberal arts education is] too much of a playground".

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67 concurred that there is a "real set" of concerns for the parents of today's college students.

"One semester in the late '80s, we ended up spending a million and a half dollars more in the middle of the year helping people... who'd never dreamed of having their children on financial aid," Fitzsimmons said.

The dean said that the College currently has 347 families with annual incomes above $100,000 who are on scholarship aid, 200 families in the $90-100,000 range and 234 families in the $80-90,000 range.

"The talent is everywhere. The important thing for us is to keep this place open to people of talent and people of talent and people of character," Fitzsimmons said.

Then and Now

Panelists also discussed the great changes between the entering classes of 1946 and 2000.

Fitzsimmons said that the Class of 1946, at 1,400 students, was the largest ever. There had been 2,185 applicants and 1,900 admissions.

This year, a record 18,000 high school seniors applied to the Class of 2000.

Two thousand were admitted.

Fitzsimmons said, though, that the criteria for admissions haven't changed much in the last 50 years.

"We will spend two or three hours, if we have to, debating a single case," the dean said. "One of the things you might ask is, 'Would I be admitted if I applied today?' I make the argument that we would be".

Fitzsimmons also noted that the Class of 1946 was evenly split between regular September entrance and June entrance for accelerated degrees. Many members of the class finished in less than three years.

Moderator Osborn Elliott '46-'44, former CEO of Newsweek, recalled the search for gut courses under the accelerated degree program.

He described a class titled "The History of Ancient Science".

"The beauty of that was that there wasn't much science back then," Elliott said.

Elliott complained about the reading load that some professors assigned. In particular, he recalled a class titled "Criminology and Penology".

"We were all taking this as a sixth course, we didn't have time to read," he said.

Another class with a mammoth reading load, according to Elliott, was "The History of Modern Italy." Before the exam, one hardworking student asked the professor which books the students should concentrate on.

"One of the books, two of the books, none of the books--makes no difference," Elliott recalled the professor responding in a heavy Italian accent

out the best of Western Civilization with the bathwater."

Schaffer said she suspected that members of the Class of '46 were less likely to feel a pressing need to go straight to law school or medical school after graduation than are students today.

Daniel G. Yankelovich '46-'48, a professional pollster, attributed this preprofessional trend to changes in the American economy and American psyche.

"Americans have had a psychology of rising expectations. Over the past couple of years that has changed to a psychology of lowering expectations," Yankelovich said. "The majority of the public is deeply concerned about job security."

"It is that sense of high anxiety that leads directly to the safety of the preprofessional routes," he said. "The parental attitude today is that [a classic liberal arts education is] too much of a playground".

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67 concurred that there is a "real set" of concerns for the parents of today's college students.

"One semester in the late '80s, we ended up spending a million and a half dollars more in the middle of the year helping people... who'd never dreamed of having their children on financial aid," Fitzsimmons said.

The dean said that the College currently has 347 families with annual incomes above $100,000 who are on scholarship aid, 200 families in the $90-100,000 range and 234 families in the $80-90,000 range.

"The talent is everywhere. The important thing for us is to keep this place open to people of talent and people of talent and people of character," Fitzsimmons said.

Then and Now

Panelists also discussed the great changes between the entering classes of 1946 and 2000.

Fitzsimmons said that the Class of 1946, at 1,400 students, was the largest ever. There had been 2,185 applicants and 1,900 admissions.

This year, a record 18,000 high school seniors applied to the Class of 2000.

Two thousand were admitted.

Fitzsimmons said, though, that the criteria for admissions haven't changed much in the last 50 years.

"We will spend two or three hours, if we have to, debating a single case," the dean said. "One of the things you might ask is, 'Would I be admitted if I applied today?' I make the argument that we would be".

Fitzsimmons also noted that the Class of 1946 was evenly split between regular September entrance and June entrance for accelerated degrees. Many members of the class finished in less than three years.

Moderator Osborn Elliott '46-'44, former CEO of Newsweek, recalled the search for gut courses under the accelerated degree program.

He described a class titled "The History of Ancient Science".

"The beauty of that was that there wasn't much science back then," Elliott said.

Elliott complained about the reading load that some professors assigned. In particular, he recalled a class titled "Criminology and Penology".

"We were all taking this as a sixth course, we didn't have time to read," he said.

Another class with a mammoth reading load, according to Elliott, was "The History of Modern Italy." Before the exam, one hardworking student asked the professor which books the students should concentrate on.

"One of the books, two of the books, none of the books--makes no difference," Elliott recalled the professor responding in a heavy Italian accent