Pusey Reiterates Need For Major Construction

President Pusey said Friday night that the needs of the University were such that at present it could spend $40 million and still not be caught up with all of Harvard's building requirements.

Speaking before the Cambridge Council of Neighborhood Associations, he reiterated his statements, made before the Associated Harvard Club's meeting in Miami, April 7, saying that the "backlog of needs" built up since the 1930's is becoming urgent.

However, Pusey added the Medical School to his list of University needs. This School and its affiliated hospitals deserve first-rate equipment, he said, but its facilities are practically antiquated because of the great rush of modern medical developments.

Under consideration is a plan to put in three floors where there are now two, in an attempt to provide more working space for the School, Pusey said. He added that the sum needed was such a staggering one that he didn't "have the courage to mention it."

James R. Killian, Jr., president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also spoke at the meeting and declared that Harvard and M.I.T. "import money and men into Cambridge and export ideas."

He cited the large tax bills which the universities pay each year and the fact that they have been instrumental in bringing many industries associated with modern technology to Cambridge.

Overcrowding in College

Pusey emphasized strongly the problem of overcrowding, both on the national and local levels. With population rising steadily, there are more and more qualified men applying to college. "Harvard may not be able to take any of them" because of its housing situation, he stated.

He also expanded the list, which he proposed in Miami, to include the Design Center mentioned in the Visual Arts Report.

A new hygiene building, to be situated on Mt. Auburn St., between Dunster and Holyoke Sts., at least one new House, a Harvard theatre, and office space for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were all mentioned again as urgent needs of the College.

"A Strategic Moment"

The Education School, Pusey said, is "at a strategic moment in time to make a great contribution" and needs a center in which to unite its far-flung elements and develop its many potentialities.

Another of the University's most pressing problems, according to Pusey, has come about through the tremendous development of the biochemical sciences. The Mallinckrodt Laboratories can no longer hold the University's chemical research, and he estimated that $2 million would be necessary to construct adequate facilities.