Insitution Must Remain Bold in Changing World

As Harvard celebrates its 375th birthday and America celebrates its 235th, it is worth considering what they have in common. Both have proud traditions of great accomplishment. Both lead the world. Both are widely envied and even more widely observed.

Both face a future quarter century as challenging as any in their long history. Peer competitors threaten the continuing preeminence of Harvard and the United States. Both have powerful traditions and strong and loyal constituencies and these are assets, to be sure - except insofar as they inhibit boldness and defer responses to a rapidly changing world. Both must overcome the besetting sin of the long preeminent - complacent self regard protective of present comforts and averse to disruptive innovation.

Historians looking back at our America will ask big questions: Did a long-established political system manage to enact the changes necessary to maintain stable finance, to preserve the global climate, to manage changes in global economic balance, to prevent nuclear conflict, and to create an economy that works for all citizens? Or did increasingly fractious politics create a gridlock that led first to stasis, then to disillusionment, then to the loss of preeminence, and ultimately to a far more dangerous world?

Historians looking back at Harvard will ask big questions too. Did the world’s long-acknowledged leader in developing and transmitting knowledge do all that it could to educate the remarkable young people it was privileged to attract? Did it assure that the revolutions in life science understanding produced commensurate reductions in human suffering? Did it assure opportunity for those of extraordinary talent regardless of their life circumstances and set the highest standard for excellence for all of those privileged to inhabit its campus? Like the most successful institutions in almost all fields of human endeavor, did it greatly expand its reach, a possibility greatly enhanced by information technology? Did it do its part to inspire and lead society in building things that created lasting value rather than short-term profit of these none more important than an educated populace? In an ever-more-commercial age did it do its part to assure the world remained attentive to beauty, to creativity, and to the joy of discovery?

To answer the large questions history will ask, Harvard will have to guard against turning inward and will have to balance the comfort of today’s community against the needs of those 50 or 100 years hence. It is hard after so much success to risk disruptive change. But the risk will be worth taking lest Harvard cede its preeminence to those with less distinguished histories but a clearer field, a cleaner canvas on which to paint boldly.

It is a commonplace that the world will be a far better place if this generation of Americans can rise to the challenges we face. No less, if Harvard can renew and transform itself it can change its nation and its world. Little else will matter when Harvard celebrates its 400th anniversary.