Harvard University. Secretary to the Corporation.

The Secretary to the Corporation functions as a corporate officer on behalf of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Secretary's job responsibilities are many and varied.

From the description of Records of the Secretary to the Corporation, 1945-1996 (bulk), 1846-1996 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 77066776

• 1901: Office of Secretary to the President created
• 1901 - 1905 : Jerome D. Greene is Secretary to the President
• 1905: Title changed to Secretary to the Corporation
• 1905 - 1910 : Jerome D. Greene is Secretary to the Corporation
• 1906: Resident Executive Board established; Greene is member
• 1909: Charles William Eliot resigns Harvard presidency
• 1909 - 1933 : Abbott Lawrence Lowell is President of Harvard
• 1910 - 11 : Clarence Cook Little succeeds Greene as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1911 - 1914 : George Peabody Gardner succeeds Little as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1912 - 1920 : Francis Welles Hunnewell is Comptroller
• 1913 - 1914 : Hunnewell and William Phillips join Gardner as Secretaries to the Corporation
• 1914: Phillips leaves office Gardner leaves office
• 1914 - 1919 : Roger Pierce serves alongside Hunnewell as a Secretary to the Corporation
• 1918 - 1919 : Pierce becomes Acting Comptroller
• 1919: Pierce resigns as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1919 - 1923 : Frederick Lewis Allen joins Hunnewell as a Secretary to the Corporation
• 1920: Hunnewell resigns as Comptroller; remains Secretary to the Corporation
• 1923: Allen resigns as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1923 - 1925 : Hunnewell serves alone as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1925 - 1926 : Wilford Cook Saeger joins Hunnewell as a Secretary to the Corporation
• 1926 - 1934 : Hunnewell serves alone as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1933 - 1953 : James Bryant Conant succeeds Lowell as President
• 1934 - 1943 : Jerome D. Greene returns, succeeds Hunnewell as Secretary to the Corporation
• 1934 - 1936 : Greene is Director of the Tercentenary Celebration
• 1937 - 1938 : Greene becomes first Assistant Secretary of the Board of Overseers, remains Secretary to the Corporation
• 1938 - 1943 : Greene succeeds Winthrop Howland Wade as Secretary of the Board of Overseers, remains Secretary to the Corporation
• 1943 - 1945 : A. Calvert Smith succeeds Greene as Secretary to the Corporation and Secretary of the Board of Overseers
• 1945 - 1965 : David Washburn Bailey succeeds Smith as Secretary to the Corporation and Secretary of the Board of Overseers
• 1953 - 1971 : Nathan Marsh Pusey succeeds Conant as President
• 1965 - 1971 : Sargent Kennedy succeeds Bailey as Secretary to the Corporation and Secretary of the Board of Overseers
• 1971 - 1991 : Derek Curtis Bok succeeds Pusey as President Robert Shenton succeeds Kennedy as Secretary to the Corporation and Secretary of the Board of Overseers
• 1974 - 1991 : Shenton assumes additional title of Secretary to the University
• 1991 - 2001 : Neil L. Rudenstine succeeds Bok as President
• 1991 - 1992 : Michael William Roberts is named Acting Secretary to the Corporation; he succeeds Shenton in all titles
• 1992: Introduction of the additional title Secretary of the University, which also comprises the title Assistant to the President
• 1992 - 1998 : Roberts is Secretary to the Corporation, Secretary of the Board of Overseers, Secretary to the University, Secretary of the University, and Assistant to the President
• 1998 - : Marc Goodheart succeeds Roberts; assumes all of Roberts' titles
• 2001 - : Lawrence H. Summers succeeds Rudenstine as President

The Secretary to the Corporation functions as a corporate officer on behalf of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The role of the Secretary has developed and changed since 1901. The office has assumed additional roles and three additional titles.

As of 2002, the Secretary is responsible for planning the meetings of the Corporation and its various committees, recording the official Corporation meeting minutes, maintaining an index to Corporation minutes, actions and policies, and informing the Harvard community about Corporation votes and providing assistance in understanding Corporation policy and procedures. In addition to these duties, which directly support the governance functions of the Corporation, the Secretary acts as a liaison to facilitate communication between the Corporation and other groups, including the Board of Overseers, the Faculties, alumni, and local and federal governments.

The Secretary to the Corporation prepares information for the Corporation. The Secretary compiles and prepares data, statistics, and background material for use by Corporation members in determining their meeting agendas, drafts letters and reports, and researches University history and precedent in regard to matters brought before the Corporation.

Much of the work engaged in by the President and Fellows is of a sensitive nature. Thus, the Secretary to the Corporation must be a highly skilled administrator, who is trustworthy, discreet, accurate, and most importantly, a loyal servant to Harvard. Unofficially, the Secretary serves as a confidant to members of the Corporation and in particular, is a trusted source of advice and counsel to the President.

The Secretary performs many duties not directly related to Corporation proceedings, including service on a variety of University-wide and Faculty committees, oversight of the administration of a number of fellowships, and management of short-term and special programs and projects.

Additionally, the Secretary to the Corporation holds the titles Secretary of the University and Assistant to the President, and is also elected Secretary of the Board of Overseers. Some of the duties and responsibilities of these titles include the development, implementation, and dissemination of University-wide policies and procedures, as well as directives of both Governing Boards, planning and arranging meetings of the Board of Overseers, administration of the Board's Standing Committees, and management of the Office of the Governing Boards, Harvard Neighbors, events at 17 Quincy Street, and the Dana-Palmer House.

By the start of the twentieth century, Harvard had become a large, modern university, requiring professional oversight of administrative operations. The office was created in 1901 as the Secretary to the President. In 1905 the title changed to Secretary to the Corporation. The duties expanded and contracted under different Harvard presidential administrations and in response to changes in the University's size and administrative needs.

From 1869, the year in which President Charles Eliot assumed the presidency of Harvard College, up through the beginning of the twentieth century, Harvard University had undergone rapid and tremendous growth in the number of students, faculty, curriculum, finances, and buildings. The accompanying increase in the amount and variety of administrative tasks left the members of the Corporation burdened by administrative details and unable to devote sufficient time to the management of University affairs.

The idea of creating an office to assist the President and Fellows (the Harvard Corporation) originated with the Board of Overseers. The Board is Harvard's senior Governing Board; its role is to provide advice and counsel to the President and Fellows. At the turn of the century, it began to devote more time to considering reducing the administrative load carried by the Corporation.

In the spring of 1901, the Board of Overseers voted to recommend a new permanent office: Secretary to the President. The Secretary's powers included that of acting in the name of the President; the Secretary also discharged various duties delegated to him by the President. The object of the Overseers' recommendation was twofold: first, to relieve the President of many routine Corporation functions and, secondly, to have in place a skilled administrative assistant who would be knowledgeable about office arrangements and familiar with the general routine of the President and Fellows. This second function, the Overseers hoped, would help to provide for a smooth transition for President Eliot's successor. The Corporation adopted the advice of the Overseers and appointed Jerome D. Greene Secretary to the President in August 1901. The title of the office was subsequently changed to Secretary to the Corporation in 1905.

Initially, the Secretary to the Corporation was responsible for arranging and recording Corporation meetings, conducting correspondence, and notifying the University community about Corporation votes. However, the incumbancy of Jerome D. Greene, an 1896 graduate of the College, changed this role. Greene proved himself an extremely capable administrator and trusted servant and friend of President Eliot; as such, he began to assume a greater role in University affairs as a whole.

The first recognition of this role was Greene's appointment, in 1906, to the newly established Resident Executive Board. He served alongside the President, Comptroller, Bursar, Inspector of Grounds and Buildings, the Assistant Dean of Harvard College, and the Regent. The President and Fellows created this new Board in order to delegate some of its responsibilities. This delegation relieved Corporation meetings from the mass of routine administrative details, including those of the management and supervision of buildings and grounds, the maintenance of the College's physical plant, assignment of rooms, and the setting of college dormitory and laboratory fees.

The Board led to greater cooperation among the various University offices represented and provided an opportunity for the Secretary to the Corporation to have contact with many different parts of the University. This set a precedent for the Secretary's role as a liaison between the Corporation and University administrators; activities as liaison expanded informally during the next four years.

The Secretary's role contracted upon Greene's departure. During President Abbott Lawrence Lowell's first year, Greene worked to ensure a smooth transition from one presidential administration to another. In 1910, Greene resigned as Secretary to the Corporation in order to pursue careers in finance and academia. (Greene's ties to Harvard remained strong, however. He was elected a member of the Board of Overseers and served as Chairman of one of the Overseers' Visiting Committees. His committee raised funds to establish an endowment for the foundation of the Graduate School of Education. Greene would return as Secretary in 1934.)

Under President Lowell, the Secretary's unofficial role as advisor and confidant greatly diminished. From 1909 to 1933, eight different men served as Secretary to the Corporation, with duties, for the most part, limited to administrative and clerical support of official Corporation proceedings.

The broad scope of the Secretary's office was re-established under the presidency of James B. Conant. In 1934, Jerome D. Greene returned to Harvard as both Director of the Tercentenary Celebration and Secretary to the Corporation. The Secretary once again was involved in a variety of University and community-wide committees and projects, and, most significantly, resumed the unofficial role as the President's confidant and advisor. University officers cannot serve on the Board of Overseers, thus Greene resigned his membership upon his return.

Just as the routine administrative responsibilities of the Corporation had increased over the years, those of the Board of Overseers also became more burdensome and time-consuming. In 1937, the Board of Overseers elected Greene to the newly established office of Assistant Secretary of the Board of Overseers.

The purpose of the new office of Assistant Secretary of the Board of Overseers was to provide administrative and clerical support to the Secretary of the Board. In particular, it was to assist the Visiting Committees in the performance of their duties. Greene held this position in addition to that of Secretary to the Corporation. The following year, he was elected Secretary of the Board of Overseers. Thereafter, the Board of Overseers has traditionally elected the Secretary to the Corporation to serve simultaneously as Secretary of the Board. The duties of the Secretary of the Board of Overseers include planning and arranging meetings of the full Board, administration of the Board's Standing Committees, and facilitating communication between the Board and the Corporation, University administrators, Faculty, and alumni.

In the early 1970s, the office of the Secretary to the Corporation was at the front of the University's effort to reform administrative procedures and introduce automation to streamline many Central Administration functions. Robert Shenton served as Secretary to the Corporation under President Derek C. Bok. Bok had established a small, informal "Simplification" Committee to consider ways to reduce the heavy load of appointment review carried on the Corporation docket. Shenton also worked closely with the Office for Information Technology to help create the University's Corporation Appointee Record System (CARS), which served as a personnel information database.

In 1974, a new title, Secretary to the University, was created and held by the Secretary to the Corporation. This additional title did not change the role of the Secretary. Rather, its sole purpose was to allow the Secretary to sign certain Harvard appointments as Secretary to the University. This meant that the appointments were University appointments rather than Corporation appointments. Corporation appointments entitled recipients to certain privileges that were not extended to those holding University appointments.

In 1992, the Secretary to the Corporation assumed two additional titles: Secretary of the University and Assistant to the President. The Secretary of the University title acknowledges the duties and responsibilities to three bodies; these are the Corporation, Board of Overseers, and Office of the Governing Boards. The Assistant to the President title formally recognizes the administrative, planning, and research services, as well as advice and counsel, the Secretary provides to the President.

This history was compiled using the records themselves, including unpublished reports prepared by the Secretary to the Corporation, published reports by and about the Secretary to the Corporation, and the following sources:

From the guide to the Records of the Secretary to the Corporation, 1945-1996 (bulk), 1846-1996 (inclusive), (Harvard University Archives)