Business School Profs Aid S. African Project

With the unofficial co-operation of the Business School, Witwatersrand (Wits.) University in Johannesburg, South Africa, will establish a business school of its own.

The school, scheduled to open in 1967, will be "modelled on the pattern of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration," according to a South African government statement. The Wits. school will be set up in consultation with several members of the Business School Faculty, and several more are reportedly considering teaching there for at least the first two years. John F. Archer, administrative director of the B-School's International Teachers Program, will arrive in Johannesburg Monday to advise the new school in its first stages.

The South African, project was made possible by a gift of $560,000 from John S. Schlesinger '45, a multimillionaire South African industrialist who also holds an M.B.A. from Harvard. Schlep singer's donation represents 30 per cent of the school's total projected endowment.

Although there is no formal connection betwen the Business School and the Wits. project, informal links are strong. Besides Archer's trip next week, Schlesinger's gift, and possible Harvard faculty visits in the future, Wits.' Principal (President) I.D. MacCrone visited here in October studying the Business School's procedures and some Wits. faculty members will be trained here.

Praise and Criticism

The South African press and radio have strongly emphasized Harvard's role in founding the school. According to one critic of the project--Parker Swanson '62, a Peace Corps volunteer in Nyasaland--Harvard is making "a solid contribution to educational apartheid," since Wits. admits no non-white students.

However, Richard M. Suzman '61, said yesterday that the moral issue involved is not so clear-cut.

Suzman, an anti-apartheid South African, said that Wits. University is a strong hold of opposition to the Nationalist government of Prime Minister Hendrik F. Verwoerd.

Formerly Admitted Negroes

Wits. admitted Negroes until 1959, Suzman said, and stopped only when Parliament passed a law forbidding it. He emphasized that Wits. Would strongly prefer to have a nondiscriminatory admissions policy.