Faculty Group to Give Pusey Religion Petition

A number of Faculty members plan to present to President Pusey this afternoon a "tempered" petition calling for him to open Memorial Church to all religious denominations, the CRIMSON learned last night. The document asks that both Christian and non-Christian services be conducted there.

This petition has been widely circulated among the Faculty, and some of its many signers include Morton G. White, professor of Philosophy; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, professor of History; Robert G. McCloskey, associate professor of Government; David E. Owen, professor of History, and John Kenneth Galbraith, professor of Economics.

The document itself is not strongly worded in any sense, and is apparently concerned with the central themes in a letter to the CRIMSON from Jerome S. Bruner, professor of Psychology.

"Harvard has served well those who have searched for intellectual and moral dignity as men of learning," he wrote. "It has provided a home with no locked rooms," he continued, adding that "symbolically, it has lost its fitness as a place where the diversity of religious impulse can be communally expressed."

An informed source claimed that the various signers would like to avoid a "full-dress debate" among the Faculty. However, Schlesinger stated Tuesday that he was "almost certain that unless the situation is clarified favorably," there will be some action at the Faculty meeting in May.

Another source commented that the document being presented to the President concerned mainly Memorial Church, but that it implied the larger issues of a sectarian university.

The personal letter written by George H. Williams, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, to President Pusey will appear in tomorrow's CRIMSON.