U.S.-U.S.S.R. Exchange Started by CFIA Council

A delegation of 12 Harvard students and three faculty advisors will travel to Leningrad this March as part of a reciprocal exchange program sponsored by the student council of the Center for International Affairs (CFIA).

The students will spend two weeks at Leningrad State University discussing a variety of issues, including the political nature of the two countries, with students at the Soviet school. In November, a group of Soviets from Leningrad will travel to Harvard as part of the exchange, which members of the CFIA student council said they hope will become an annual event.

The CFIA decided to implement an exchange program after it was approached by the Citizen Exchange Committee (CEC), a national group that pairs American and Soviet universities in an attempt to put "real people here in touch with real people there," said CFIA Student Council President Hyungji Park '89.

But unless organizers are able to raise enough money to pay for roundtrip air fair, participants will either have to pay for themselves or take out loans, according to Park. Currently the group has raised only one-third of the money needed.

If financing is arranged, the delegation will spend three days sightseeing in Moscow and the remaining eight days in Leningrad, where it will be involved in such activities as a superpower summit simulation.

Students interested in going to Leningrad must apply at the CFIA by Monday. Applicants need not be fluent in Russian, although the CFIA will choose three to four members of the team who are fluent. Park said successful applicants would be notified before Christmas.

A similar exchange program has been operating at Yale for the last two years, prompting the CEC to seek new ties between other Soviet and American universities.