Pusey Names Committees To Study Merger Topics

The movement toward a Harvard-Radcliffe merger is beginning to make perceptible, if slight, progress.

Four committees of Faculty members and administrators are now studying various aspects of the merger question, including its impact on Harvard's budget, administration, and House system. Their reports will help the Faculty decide if it should approve the merger when the question comes up for debate sometime this year.

President Pusey disclosed the committees-which were created during the summer to the Faculty on Tuesday Pusey said he had hoped to appoint the committees last spring. but their creation was delayed by the April upheaval. No timetable for Faculty consideration of the question has yet been set.

Pusey said yesterday the Corporation could do nothing about merger until it had "a signal from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences saying it is willing to accept" the 'Cliffe's proposal of marriage.

Faculty approval is needed since the merger would probably place what is now Radcliffe College under the direct jurisdiction of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

"A major problem, of course, is the one we call budget and personnel," Pusey said. "If there were a complete integration of Radeliffe into Harvard, this would mean its budget would be forced into that of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences."

The additional cost of paying the salaries, retirement benefits, etc., of former Radeliffe employees could substantially increase the deficit of the Faculty. Pusey said.

L. Gard Wiggins. Administrative Vice-President of the University, is chairingthe committee reviewing budget and personnel.

"Another real area of concern is the question of admissions." Pusey said, A committee chaired by Chase N. Peterson 52, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, is studying this question. The committee is not so much trying to decide the ratio between male and female undergraduates as to consider "what would be the effect on the admissions program and the financial aid program of Harvard," Pusey said.

Radcliffe now has a much weaker program of financial aid than Harvard's.

The two other committees and their chairmen are: Residence and Administration of Houses, Jerome Kagan, professor of Developmental Psychology; Extracurricular Activities, Dean Watson.