Graduate School Merger Gains Faculty Approval

The Faculty unanimuosly approved the merger of the Harvard and Radcliffe graduate School of Arts and Sciences yesterday, and then launched into a complex discussion of Federal aid the education and the potential dangers to Harvard of its increasing financial involvement with the government.

Edward S. Mason, acting Dean of the Faculty, said the meeting produced no definate conclusions on the aid issue, and that "the general disposition was to continue discussion next month."

He pointed out that the GSAS decision amounted to a rubber-stamping, since Departments, CEP, and the Administrative Board have already considered and approved the merger. No discussion whatsoever preceded the vote, except for introductory speeches by John P. Elder, Dean of the GSAS, and Mary I. Bunting, president of Radcliffe.

Mrs. Bunting said that the merger would bring a "change in the way people admitted to graduate school, and a change in the degree," but that the GSAS would be otherwise unaffected.

Radcliffe still has programs in Business Administration and in Teaching separate from Harvard's. All Radcliffe women receive instruction provided by the faculties of Harvard University.

Once started on Federal aid, the meeting focused on three main threats:

Unreimbursed costs--since the conditions of many government grants involve additional expenses which are not covered by the original grant, by giving Harvard more money the government can also increase operating overhead.

Changes in the relative emphasis teaching and research--the majority of grants foster the latter.

Imbalance in financial distribution among the various fields--certain specialized sciences receive large shares. In the past, the University has tried to offset this imbalance by giving more of its own funds to the remaining disciplines.

Don K. Price, dean of the Faculty of Public Administration, emphasized all these points in a formal statement beginning the Federal Aid discussion. The other main speaker in this part of the meeting was Harvey Brooks, dean of engineering on the dangers of powerful government pressures in such areas as loyalty checks, should Washington control a large enough portion of the University's budget.