’S JOURNAL

Knowles cites two. First will be a “holistic bution to those e≠orts will be to absent ends. I learned quickly that this gave me look at the undergraduate curriculum.” himself from the scene, so his successor the pleasure of a conversation with Jane. He approves of the recent “move of the has a clear path. Knowles has a leave due, But if I wanted the pleasure of a conversa- pendulum towards liberating more room but will not stray far from Cambridge tion with Jeremy, I would be well advised for electives” and perhaps for study until his wife, historian Jane Knowles, to place a call to University Hall. The light abroad (see page 50). But a “major look” at completes organizing a major exhibition in his o∞ce is Harvard’s version of the the entire curriculum “deserves somebody for the Radcli≠e Institute this autumn. eternal flame.”) who has a forward span”—a fundamental Knowles will have more time to indulge As for returning to the “community of reason for his decision to step down now. his passion for music and to visit a country scholars” full time, Knowles says, “It will Second, the dean will have to figure out, home in southern Vermont, where he has be gripping for me again to read the sci- well before plans for Allston are complete, retreated to fell trees, build a playhouse for entific literature and to open my eyes to “how to move forward with the pressing grandchildren, ski, and, inevitably, read what has gone on. I’m a bit of a Rip Van need for new laboratory space” to accom- memos and draft his annual letters to the Winkle. The first thing is re-education, modate growth in the sciences. Hence the faculty during each Christmas vacation. and the second is teaching.” Susan Peder- detailed planning for the “North Precinct” (Summers told the faculty that after he sen, the outgoing dean of undergraduate (see page 54). was appointed president, “I was in the education, has already called, urging him Knowles’s immediate personal contri- habit of calling Jeremy at home on week- to o≠er a freshman seminar.

ROTC Resurgent ROTC at Harvard is standing taller after mindful of Harvard’s commitments both to of about $135,000 have been met by two September 11 and after what CNN calls nondiscrimination and to the imperative of or three anonymous donors. “old-fashioned flag-waving” by President national service at a time of war. At the Harvard Club of Boston’s annual Lawrence H. Summers. FAS banished the Reserve Officers’ meeting on March 26, Summers called the Speaking with students, Summers has Training Corps in 1969 during the Viet- present funding arrangement for ROTC called military service “noble” and said, nam War. Harvard students could con- an “uncomfortable compromise,” echoing “We need to be careful about adopting tinue to participate in ROTC, but they comments he made earlier to students. any policy on campus of nonsupport for had to train with the ROTC program at Yet he has not so far indicated that he has those involved in defending the country.” MIT. Harvard made payments to MIT to decided to change Harvard’s financial or In a Veterans Day letter to Harvard cover the administrative costs of training administrative policies toward ROTC.And cadets and midshipmen, he wrote that he its students until 1993, when it stopped the military’s policies about homosexual- “and many others deeply admire those of doing even that on the grounds that the ity have not changed. you who choose to serve society in this ban on homosexuals in the military vio- The members of Advocates for Har- way.” He asked editors of the Harvard lated the University’s nondiscrimination vard ROTC, an organization founded in Yearbook to allow students to list ROTC policy. At the time, Harvard president 1988, have been energized by events and among their activities, which they could Neil L. Rudenstine, with the knowledge of by Summers’s statements.The group now not previously do because ROTC is not the faculty, set up with a local law firm a has 1,060 Harvard affiliates signed on, and an officially sanctioned activity. channel through which administrative the number is growing. In a speech at the Kennedy School, costs could be paid by alumni donors, not The Advocates for Harvard ROTC seek Summers said that “if these terrible by Harvard. Since then, the annual costs “the complete acceptance of ROTC by events and the struggle that we are now engaged in once again re-ignite our sense A commissioning ceremony for Harvard ROTC students occurs each June in . of patriotism—re-ignite our respect for those who wear uniforms—and bring us together as a country in that way, it will be no small thing.” Speaking to the Faculty of Arts and Sci- ences (FAS), Summers described military service as “vitally important to the free- dom that makes possible institutions like Harvard.” Given the long history of debate about ROTC at the University, he said, “I have begun to acquaint myself with the record of faculty” discussion and decisions,

52 May - June 2002

Reprinted from . For copyright and reprint information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at www.harvardmagazine.com ment tests. Mean scores have risen, and Overcommitted the dispersion around those means has Science Synergy Undergraduates? shrunk. “Students have, in other words, not only gotten smarter on average—they With preliminary approval from the Dean harry r. lewis begins his an- have gotten significantly more alike in Harvard Corporation, the Faculty of nual report on for the their academic potential,” Lewis writes— Arts and Sciences has negotiated a previous academic year (available at a point bearing on faculty debate over merger with the Rowland Institute for www.college.harvard.edu/dean/) with fa- grade inflation (see “The Gamut of Science, to take effect later this spring. miliar data extolling the College stu- Grades from A to B,” January-February, The interdisciplinary research institute, dents’ splendiferous academic credentials page 62). That convergence, he notes, has located in a 110,000-square-foot facility and lamenting the inadequacy of the aca- occurred even as “the College population on the Charles River, was founded by demic advising provided to them (see has become more diverse in every other Polaroid creator Edwin H. Land ’30, S.D. “Amending Advising,” March-April, page way, and…the gender ratio has moved ’57, to focus on experimental rather 68). He provides an exhibit demonstrat- close to balanced.” than theoretical science (see “A Scien- ing that during the past two decades, the Among new concerns, Lewis discusses tific Windfall for the University?” Janu- student body as a whole has become at length whether students are over- ary-February, page 64). brainier, measured by standard achieve- extended outside the classroom. He Gordon McKay professor of applied acknowledges that extracurricular ac- physics Frans Spaepen has been named tivities “are often as memorable to the institute’s director; he brings to the alumni/ae, years after leaving Harvard, as job nine years’ experience leading the are their classes,” and that for many stu- cross-disciplinary Harvard Materials Re- Harvard,” says David Clayman ’38, the dents “they provide healthy balance to search Science and Engineering Center. founder and chair of the group, which intense academic programs and an op- Among the changes he will oversee is issued its first newsletter in the fall. portunity to pursue excellence in direc- the creation of a new postdoctoral fel- “We want ROTC to be respected by tions unrelated to their studies or to lowship program at the institute, to the College. It isn’t about money, al- their intended career.” begin in the fall of 2003. Harvard under- though the present arrangement is That said, what is too much of a good graduate and graduate students will also clumsy and awkward. It’s a symbolic thing? Senior surveys reveal that nearly begin work there with faculty and senior matter.” Clayman, now retired, never in four-fifths of recruited varsity athletes scientists under Spaepen’s direction. uniform himself, taught meteorology (who make up 9 percent of the class) re- With the resources of the soon-to- and celestial navigation as a civilian in- port spending more than 20 hours per be renamed Rowland Institute at Har- structor in the navy in World War II. week on their sport; nearly one-third re- vard, FAS will “be able nimbly to sup- Clayman met with Summers in early port spending more than 30 hours per port cross-disciplinary research,” said February to present the group’s peti- week. Those findings, Lewis writes, will Dean Jeremy R. Knowles. “I am excited tion that Harvard officially recognize be considered by the standing committee by the opportunities that this merger ROTC. “He listened very carefully to on athletic sports, and perhaps in Ivy presents to us.” what we had to say,” says Clayman. League-wide forums. (At the behest of Michael M. Segal ’76, M.D., assistant presidents, the schools’ ath- professor of neurosurgery, has never letic directors this spring are examining nonathletic activities “participate at a had a military connection, but wants to the number of football recruits allowed, much less intense level of commitment,” support ROTC. He maintains an infor- the number of recruits for all sports, and he wrote. In these extracurriculars, Lewis mative website for the advocates, at the intensity of the practice and training observed separately, “students tend to www.segal.org/rotc/. commitments required of athletes—not find their own level” of involvement.). Be- “We are exploring a number of dif- only in-season but increasingly year- yond the pressure all this activity places ferent ways of enriching the ROTC ex- round.) on facilities, these data may feed FAS’s perience at Harvard,” says Segal. “For The concern over athletics, Lewis desire to examine students’ nonacademic instance, we have taken steps to bring noted separately, stems from Harvard’s commitments in general (see “Arts and cadets together with the National Se- responsibilities in recruiting student-ath- Sciences Aims,” March-April, page 61). curity Fellows—mid-career military letes, paying coaches, and determining Overall, comparing the College today people spending a year at the Kennedy the conditions of competition. to its condition a century ago, Lewis finds School—who might act as mentors to At the same time, in absolute numbers, in his and his predecessor’s parallel con- cadets. We want to make the ROTC more students “spend amounts of time cerns “a faithful adherence to a set of core experience attractive enough so that a that are arguably excessive” on self-di- values and principles designed to ensure prospective cadet would say, ‘I’d like to rected publications, arts, theater, and the finest quality education and college go to Harvard.’” music than on varsity sports. (Still, large experience possible for our undergradu- majorities of students involved in those ates, men and women.”

Harvard Magazine 53 Photograph by Jim Harrison

Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and reprint information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at www.harvardmagazine.com