University Will Appoint Civil Defense Officer

The Corporation will act on the appointment of a civil defense officer at the meeting either this Monday or on Nov. 19. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-president, indicated yesterday that on one of these two dates he will recommend who should fill the post.

If the Corporation approves, the officer should asume his duties about Dec 1.

Meanwhile the Cambridge Civil Defense Office has received detailed plans of many Harvard buildings that contain sites for fall-out shelters. The plans are based on a survey made last spring by Lockwood-Greene, a Boston engineering firm under contract to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Over the summer the data collected by Lockwood-Greene was processed at an Army computer center in Maryland, which estimated the "protection factor" of each building and the number of persons each could shelter.

Last spring David Schubert, a shelter analyst for Lockwood-Green, called Harvard "one of the best potential fallout shelter areas in Cambridge.

Although final reports are not yet ready on all University buildings, Edmund Burke, Cambridge's civil defense director, said yesterday that he will soon ask the University to allow the government to mark and stock the shelter areas in buildings for which specific data is available.

No General Policy

Harvard does not yet have a general policy on whether or not to cooperate with the government's civil defense program. Recommending such a policy to the Corporation will be one of the primary tasks of the new University civil defense officer.

According to Wiggins, the CD officer will also be charged with assigning shelter space to different parts of the Harvard population. To do this he will use a survey of potential fall-out shelter areas conducted last year by John C. Colburn of the Buildings and Grounds Department. He will also use the Corps of Engineers plans.

The Buildings and Grounds survey was made at the direction of the 14-member Harvard Civil Defense Study Committee, chaired by Harvey Brooks, dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science.

President Pusey directed Wiggins to suggest a civil defense officer after he disbanded the Study Committee in April.