Faculty Considers Extending Recess To Reduce Costs

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is considering extending Christmas vacation because of a possible energy shortage, University officials said yesterday.

The three-member faculty committee investigating calendar changes will make a recommendation to the Faculty Council concerning the December vacation sometime in the next two weeks, Edward O. Wilson, professor of Zoology and a member of the committee, said yesterday.

Robert E. Kaufman, assistant dean of the Faculty for financial affairs said yesterday that if there is a calendar change he expects the decision to come "certainly in the month of October."

Harvard Student Agencies' Travel Services, which lost $25,000 because of last year's schedule change, has arranged to extend return charter flights for a week in January if the Faculty approves a change.

Michael F. Cronin '75, president of HSA, said yesterday he received "some indication from University Hall" that the calendar may be changed.

No committee member would comment on the likelihood of altering the present schedule but one, Martin A. Shefter, associate professor of Government, said that if a change were approved "it would probably be a calendar adjustment like last year."

The Faculty extended last year's Christmas recess by a week.

Richard G. Leahy, associate dean of the Faculty, said that new considerations prompted this year's study of a calendar change. "Last year, we were concerned with running out of oil. This year it's more the financial burden we're concerned with," he said.

He said that the price of steam has more than doubled since last year and that prices ran about one-third above the steam allocation in this year's budget.

The committee still has to determine what reduced costs could be expected from any vacation extension.

The University does not yet have exact figures on how much it saved by extending last year's Christmas vacation but Wilson said the amount "was fairly impressive."

Wilson also said that he would approve a schedule change only if it wasn't a great inconvenience to faculty and students."

The committee, chaired by James S. Duesenberry, chairman of the Economics Department, started investigating the feasibility of calendar changes at the request of Dean Rosovsky earlier this year.