Overseers Meet Today; Big News Is Expected

Today's Board of Overseers meeting may produce what one University official has called "the biggest news story to come out of Harvard in ten year."

Unprecedented security measures at the University News Office and casual remarks from several sources point to an announcement of major importance.

But only the highest University officials and a few members of the news office staff know what it will be. Even the Overseers apparently have not yet been told.

There is strong reason to believe that President Pusey will announce the name of the new dean of the faculty of medicine today, but few would consider this the most important development of a decade.

The same objection holds for another announcement that could be made today--that Harvard's endowment has reached the billion-dollar mark. This has clearly been in the offing for months, but as one Overseer remarked last night, "I should think that's pretty trivial."

Resignation?

Although the resignation of a high University official--say, President Pusey--would qualify, there has been no evidence that anyone is resigning.

What else is there? The formal merger of Harvard and Radcliffe--inevitable, but more likely 20 years from now this morning. (Besides, the Radcliffe trustees are not meeting today.) A very large gift--but it would have to be truly huge to have caused such excitement.

Speculation last night centered around the Kennedy family. Jacqueline Kennedy is expected to visit an art exhibition at the Fogg on Tuesday. Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54 is in the Boston area. And Arthur M. Schlesinger '38--a friend of the family--is now in Cambridge.

Perhaps their presence is only coincidence. But the indications that something is about to break are many.

They center around the University news office, which last Wednesday instituted tight security precautions. Students who have worked in the office say that no Overseers' meeting this year or last has called for such secret preparation.

William H. Tobey, the University's photographer, has been taking photographs to "document" the story for a week. Only University news officer William M. Pinkerton, an assistant and Tobey know the story. News office employees, sometimes privy to "secrets," have been elaborately kept from learning the nature of the news.

The news office is flying representatives to New York, Chicago, and possibly other cities tomorrow to release the news simultaneously with the Cambridge announcement.