Administration of the Dana Reed Prize for undergraduate writing changes hands this year, thanks to an arrangement worked out between the Dana Reed Prize Committee (DRPC) and the office of Archie Epps, Dean of Students in Harvard College.

Except for 1976 when the judges chose no winner, the Dana Reed Prize has gone annually since 1948 to the best undergraduate writing in undergraduate publications. Initially $100, the award has grown to $500. The judges also designate honorable mentions from time to time.

The contest has always been decided by three independent judges selected by the DRPC from the worlds of literature, journalism, and publishing. As originally set up, the committee consisted of several alumni friends of the prize's namesake, a member of the Class of 1943 who died in 1944 while on a World War II bombing raid over the Adriatic Sea.

New provisions began to take shape as the 50th anniversary of the prize drew near, according to founding DRPC member Oliver Allen '43, of New York. "The committee felt that some new arrangement was due. Many of the original members had died, while the others were not getting any younger." Attempts to bring in younger members had not proved very successful, either.

When the University learned in 1996 that the DRPC was seriously considering the discontinuation of the prize, FAS Secretary (and former College Dean) John B. Fox Jr. contacted the group in hopes of finding a way of retaining the prize and its traditional independence, both of which have long enjoyed a high reputation among undergraduates.

In response, the DRPC proposed a new independent and self-perpetuating group to be composed of recent Harvard graduates. The DRPC ironed out details in consultation with Epps and other University officials.

To maintain the prize's reputation for integrity and independence, a new independent five-member committee has begun operating this year. Members will serve staggered five-year terms, so that a new member joins the group annually. The contest will continue to be judged by an outside panel of three. The University's role will be limited to managing the prize funds and ensuring that the committee continues to perform its duties.

The new committee, which holds its first meeting on March 9, consists of Jonathan Galassi '71, editor-in-chief of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.; writer-critic Sarah Kerr '89; Alexander Star '89, editor of Lingua Franca; Ira Stoll '94, managing editor of the Jewish Forward; and Jeffrey Toobin '82, of The New Yorker.

Dana Reed Prize winners have included Robert Crichton (1949), Michael J. Halberstam (1953), John Updike (1954), Sallie Bingham (1957), Jacob Brackman (1965), David B. Ansen (1967), James M. Fallows (1969), Michael Kinsley (1971), and Mary Jo Salter (1977).

Judges have included Renata Adler, Cleveland Amory, Robert Anderson, John Ashbery, Brooks Atkinson, Donald Barthelme, Anne Bernays, Joan Didion, Nikki Giovanni, David Halberstam, Anthony Hecht, Elizabeth Janeway, Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Kumin, Anthony Lewis, Norman Mailer, Robert K. Massie, Phyllis McGinley, Bill Moyers, George Plimpton, Ishmael Reed, Adrienne Rich, William Styron, Jeffrey Toobin, Calvin Trillin, Theodore H. White, and Richard Wilbur.

A native of Cambridge who attended Belmont public schools, Dana Reed served as executive editor of The Harvard Crimson, editor-in-chief of the 1943 Harvard Album (yearbook), and undergraduate editor of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin (forerunner of Harvard Magazine).

The prize was originally funded with profits of the Album. Over the years, Reed's family and DRPC members contributed to the prize account and eventually made it self-sustaining.