Chem Dept. Objects To College Science Center

Objections by the Chemistry Department have apparently killed present plans for an undergraduate science center. A Faculty committee on undergraduate science instruction, headed by Norman F. Ramsey, professor of Physics, recommended the center last fall.

President Pusey said last week that need for an undergraduate science center had seemed particularly pressing when it was thought that the Graduate School of Education was going to move into Byerly Hall. The move is no longer an immediate prospect.

Although acute problems are probably "some years down the road," Pusey said, "we're going to have to find more room for undergraduate courses."

Although the other science Departments reportedly approved the idea for a new undergraduate center, the Chemistry Department raised three questions about the project.

According to chairman Frank H. Westheimer, the Chemistry Department told President Pusey in a report that its major need might rather be expansion in research space, at least to accompany any increase in space for undergraduate laboratories.

The Department questioned whether the construction of a new undergraduate center was the most economical way to expand facilities. It also objected to the physical separation of undergraduate laboratories from the major activities of the Department that the proposed center would entail.

Westheimer explained, "The questions raised about the center are not questions as to whether we should improve undergraduate science teaching, but only as to the best and most economical program for undergraduate and graduate teaching, and for research which the University can undertake in the sciences."

He added that it was difficult "to disentangle the undergraduate program from the entire program of this and other Departments in the sciences."

A member of the Ramsey Committee, Westheimer said he was personally in favor of the building, "even if not ideal," because it would solve some of the Department's problems. "I would like to see a great deal more science building done," he said.

Westheimer pointed out that Conant Laboratory was the only new construction for Chem Department use since 1930, and that the last new Biology building was erected about 30 years ago.

"Labs are expensive, and they become obsolete faster than offices and classrooms," Westheimer noted. "The wear and tear is much worse."

Emphasizing the Department's concern with undergraduate instruction, Westheimer said the center and other problems required more study and discussion.