Weld Pushes Fight for SAC as War Memorial

Declaring war on the recommendation announced yesterday by the joint Associated Harvard Clubs-Alumni Association Memorial Committee, Student Council President Edric A. Weld, Jr. '46 last night said that the question of commemoration for the University's Second World War dead would dominate the agenda at next Wednesday's Council meeting.

Weld hinted that the Council may well undertake a large-scale campaign among the national body of Harvard Alumni to build up support favoring the idea of a Student Activities Center and opposing the expenditure of $200,000 for a plaque in Memorial Church together will $500,000 for scholarships.

To aid in this drive he indicated that the Council would attempt to work hand in hand with leaders of the student governing bodies in the various graduate schools of the University, such as the Law School's Phillips Brooks Committee, the Business School Student Association, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council.

Anonymous Dean Speaks

One dean of a prominent professional school in the University insisted on anonymity but asserted. "I think this war's so damned important that it should be represented by something that will carry through the years and prove lasting as well as greater in our consciousness than Memorial Hall."

Meanwhile Dean of the College Wilbur J. Bender '27 refused to comment on the committee's report. He nevertheless added that "the need for a Student Activities Center is one of the most pressing needs of the College, and, I should think, of the University."

"More and More Activities"

Concurring was Robert B. Watson '37, Associate Dean of he College who directly supervises the College's 43 undergraduate activities and points with alarm to the existing inadequate facilities for these groups." 'There are fewer and fewer available meeting rooms, for example,' Watson commented, "and more and more student activities. It must become widely realized at once that the situation now is not what is was ten years ago when extra-curricular interest did not run so high."

Joseph Hudnut '09, Dean of the Faculty of Design, stated that he specifically favored the idea of a Student Activities Center in the light of its special appropriateness for the purpose involved. "Fostering creative cooperative activity," he emphasized, "is in the spirit of the teamwork that characterized our military effort. I think the committee's expression of piety in the Church is actually a subconscious expression of squeamishness over-fund-raising."

3 to 4 Million Estimate

The Student Activities Center, according to an estimate provided the War Memorial Committee by the Boston architects firm of Coolidge, Shepley, Bullduch, and Abbott, will cost in the neighborhood of $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 inclusive of an endowment for operational expenses. Harvard Clubs and Class organizations of the Alumni Association must induce any-money solicitations for the support of a Student Activities Center