CD Begins Survey Of Harvard Area

The Boston engineering firm of Lockwood-Greene will begin in the near future the second phase of its survey into the fallout-shelter capacity of University buildings. The survey will probably lead to a request by Civil Defense authorities to turn Harvard's basements into a network of public shelters.

The civil defense plan would provide for stocking the shelters with food and medical supplies. It would also include posting signs inside and outside University buildings listing their capacity as fallout shelters.

After the second phase of the survey is completed, and various budget estimates have been made for increasing the protection factor of possible shelter spaces to a pf of at least 100, the New England division of the Army Corps of Engineers will negotiate with the University for permission to designate shelter areas.

The Corps has already turned over to the Cambridge Civil Defense co-ordinator computations of data from the first phase of the survey, made in co-operation with Harvard's Buildings and Grounds Departments. The government-financed survey indicated, a Lockwood-Greene official said in April, that Harvard is "one of the best potential fallout shelter areas in Cambridge."

The Harvard Corporation has made no policy decision yet on accepting federal civil defense markings or stockpiles. A report of the Harvard Civil Defense Study Committee recommended that the University "should cooperate with the current Federal program of identification, marking, and stocking of existing shelter space."

However, the Corporation has decided only to appoint a civil defense officer for the University who would make more detailed studies of the complex problems involved. It did not specifically endorse any of the Civil Defense Study Committee's other recommendations, but directed the CD officer to make his plans "in line with" these proposals.

CO-ORDINATE STUDIES

L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-President, whom President Pusey charged with nominating a University Civil Defense officer, said recently that the officer would "co-ordinate Harvard's study with those of local and Federal groups." Until the CD officer is named, the Buildings and Grounds Department probably will not begin its own extended study of the University's fallout shelter capabilities.

A separate preliminary study by John C. Collburn, assistant Director of Building and Grounds, indicated that there is a great deal of space in fireproof buildings at the University with a protection factor of at least 75 that could be increased to a factor of 100 "in most cases fairly easily and inexpensively." If ten square feet is allotted per person, the preliminary report suggested that almost 50,000 persons may be sheltered in buildings connected with the University's tunnel system.

President Pusey has acknowledged that Harvard took a first step toward involvement with the federal civil defense program in allowing the survey of the University's fallout shelter capabilities by Lockwood-Greene.

However, he said that permission was granted in the Buildings and Grounds Department without prior knowledge by the senior Administration officers. It did not commit the University to cooperate further, he emphasized.