Gardner Plan Will Change Godkin Talks

John W. Gardner, chairman of the Urban Coalition, will present next week's three Godkin lectures in a television studio rather than broadcast from Sanders Theater.

Attendance at the lectures has dropped over the past few years, and Donald K. Price, dean of the Kennedy School of Government, said that Gardner strongly preferred a television presentation without a question-answer period.

Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and now a fellow of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, will lecture on "The Individual and the Society." The lectures will cover many of the city-conflict problems studied by the Urban Coalition as well as the role of demonstrations on and off campus.

Experimental Format

Dean Price emphasized that this year's format is only an experiment. Ninety-seven per cent of McGeorge Bundy's audience last year watched his lectures over television. But if Gardner's series is not successful, Price said, the format will be changed back.

In the past, television has covered the one-hour speeches before a public audience in Sanders. A question and answer period usually followed the lecture.

Gardner changed to a television format because of the technical problems of broadcasting from a public lecture, Price said. Gardner will speak at 10 p.m. next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on WGBH (Channel 2).

$10,000 Gift

A group of friends of E. L. Godkin, the first editor of the Nation and a leader in governmental reform, donated $10,000 in 1903 to establish a series of lectures that would deal with 'the essentials of free government and the duties of the citizen."

Since 1935, the School of Government has brought Godkin lecturers to Harvard who combine an active participation in public life with scholarship in public affairs.