Kennedy Library at Columbia Point

The John F. Kennedy Library Corporation will choose Monday between a University of Massachusetts proposal to build the Kennedy Memorial at the UMass-Columbia Point campus, and a Harvard-backed proposal to keep the Kennedy archives in Harvard Square and build the museum in the Charlestown Navy Yard.

No matter where the memorial ends up it will serve as a catalyst for development. For Charlestown that will mean an unused Navy yard turned into a national historical park with a variety of projects. For Dorchester it may mean the funds needed to completely renovate the Columbia Point Housing project and build new housing.

Harvard has worked hard to come up with a suitable split-site proposal, but that proposal cannot match the opportunities that placing the memorial at Columbia Point present.

There is some question in our minds about breaking trust with the people who gave money for a memorial in Cambridge. But because a memorial as such, with a museum, would not be built in Harvard Square, under the split-site proposal, that concern does not override our support for the UMass site.

Educationally the public institution at Columbia Point, only three years old, would benefit greatly from the resources of the Kennedy archives.

In Harvard Square the library would integrate well with the Kennedy Institute of Politics, and would be more easily accessible to scholars than at distant Columbia Point.

For the most part the development potential of each proposition balances out. But there are crucial points in favor of the UMass option. The people in Dorchester have recently shown a much stronger sentiment for building the memorial on Columbia Point than the residents of Cambridge or Charlestown.

And it is now apparent that if the Columbia Point site is chosen on Monday, construction could begin immediately. There is a chance that construction could be stalled at Charlestown with its reams of red tape and complicated federal funding proposals. And if the split-site proposal is not chosen, there seems to be a greater likelihood that plans for Charlestown and Cambridge would eventually gain their funds, even without the library, while the Columbia Point area might have less of a chance for development.

Although we as students at Harvard recognize the value of having such an educational resource as the archives next to Harvard, we are also willing to concede that placing the Memorial at UMass will mean the greatest benefit for the most people. On that basis the Kennedy Library should choose to place the memorial at UMass-Columbia Point.