Yovicsin Popular
Yovicsin, himself a very attractive figure as a football coach, is still learning about this very complex University. As a coach, he would obviously like to have football players here, but he cannot want them as much as the alumni do, or he will conflict with Ivy standards. His job is football, and since this is the activity in the University that gets the most frequent public attention, he never has a chance to learn the job quietly and privately. His every move is in public. Yet, popular with his players and with undergraduates generally, Yovicsin seems to be adjusting to Harvard very well, and may fulfill the great predictions made for him by Dick Harlow, the old Crimson coach who recommended him for the post.
If these were the portentous events during '58's tenure, they were certainly not the only ones to create serious interest. Perhaps the first weighty matter that seemed pressing when this year's seniors came to Cambridge was the question of academic freedom and national security.
Most immediate to most undergraduates was the uproar over the appointment of J. Robert Oppenheimer '26 as William James Lecturer.
Oppenheimer spoke as scheduled, and despite an April snowstorm drew an overflow crowd to Sanders. Threatened student pickets failed to materialize and the series continued without incident and with dwindling attendance, as the theoretical physics of the lectures failed to excite large crowds for all eight lectures. Oppenheimer did, however, live in Adams House and met and talked with many undergraduates during his stay, creating at least as much interest in this way as the Veritas boys had in theirs.
The other "great issue" was the Memorial Church controversy this spring. While the terms of the dispute have been aired at practically excessive length, it is interesting to try to gauge the depth of feelings involved. This was as emotional an issue as has hit Harvard in '58's stay, and it seemed that the President seriously misjudged the depth of feeling on this explosive issue, both among Faculty and students. The issue that people were thinking about--the extent of the University's interest in and commitment to religion--was never really brought into the open.
Instead, a matter on which few had any difficulty in finally reaching an agreement--details as to the uses of Memorial Church--was argued, because this was the only matter that could be directly brought into the open. Whether there will be any clear tests of other issues seems doubtful, and the fact that the President is considerably more interested in religion than perhaps a majority of the other members of the University may not really become a subject for debate. The people who oppose his stand are not going to deny him the right to a personal opinion, and, as one rather pompously put it, "We haven't caught him in any overt act" to advance his religious ideas within the University. It is a question for the future as to whether the President's ideas lead in his mind to University policies that will be-