Dental Program Future in Doubt; Pusey Heads Fact-Finding Group

President Pusey has named a high-powered committee of nine to consider the future of the School of Dental Medicine at a one-day meeting in December.

The committee includes a college president, a former university president, two medical school deans, a former medical school dean, the director of the National Institute of Dental Research, and three Harvard doctors.

Dr. Robert H. Ebert, dean of the faculty of Medicine said recently that the committee might recommend abolishing the four-year program leading to the dental degree, leaving only specialists programs for those who haves obtained their dental degrees elsewhere.

Pusey himself will chair the meeting on Dec. 7, Ebert will attend, and several witnesses from the Dental School will be called, Pusey said.

The member of the committee will have several statistical documents mailed to them for their consideration before the December meeting in Cambridge.

Ebert explained last month that the total number of medical and dental students that could be admitted annually was limited by facilities and faculty. (Medical and dental students pursue almost identical courses for the first two years.) The quality of dental school applicants, he said, is lower than that of medical applicants. As a result, Ebert said, the admissions committee which chooses both sets of students "had become increasingly uncomfortable as it must turn away superior applicants while less qualified dental students fill their places in the classroom."

Committee Members

The members of the committee are Dr. Elkan R. Blout, Harkness Professor of Biological Chemistry; Dr. F. Sargent Cheever, dean of the medical school of the University of Pittsburgh; Dr. Leonard Cronkhite, lecturer on Preventive Medicine; Dr. James P. Dixon, president of Antioch College; Dr. Seymour Kreshover, director of the National Institute of Dental Research; Dr. John B. MacDonald, former president of the University of British Columbia; Dr. Joseph Volker, dean of the Medical Center of the University of Alabama; and Dr. Joseph T. Wearn, retired dean of the medical school at Western Research University.