"I don't know. I guess he can come out of the building to receive your essay."
The man met me at the back door of University Hall a minute later and accepted my Bowdoin Prize Essay Contest submission. A great sense of relief and triumph flooded through me as I stepped down the stairs and past the guards. As I stepped out of the shadow of University Hall I felt a beatific smile taking charge of my face. There was nothing else they could do to get in the way. I had won my battle with Harvard University.
Still, as I started walking back toward Winthrop House I distinctly heard one of them say, "So what is it we were hired to do, anyway?"
It's a question I wish Harvard administrators would stop to ask themselves.
--DAVID I.L. BEECHER