STUDENTS IN CITY PLANNING SCHOOL HIT AT ABOLITION

In protest against the imminent abolition of the Graduate School of City Planning, a group of students in the School, headed by Oscar Sutermeister, 2S.C.P., have written prominent men throughout the country, connected with planning. Included among these are Franklin D. Roosevelt '04, who has ultimate control of all physical planning in the United States through the National Resources Committee, Herbert Hoover, famed among planners for his work in the fields of housing and zoning while Secretary of Commerce, and James M. Curley, who has directly attached to his office one of the best of the 46 state planning boards.

Opinions Asked

Charles W. Eliot, 2nd '20, Executive Director of the National Resources Committee, a graduate of the School, and, by virtue of his position, perhaps the most influential man in the field today, and Jacob L. Crane, Jr., President of the American City Planning Institute, and also a former student of the School, were asked as eminent members of the profession to give their views on the proposed abolition.

It was hoped by those who wrote these letters that impartial statements from authorities concerning the value of planning and of integrated professional instruction for this work, would bring to the attention of University officials the "far-reaching effects which will be produced by the discontinuance of the only school of planning in America."

Students Feel Loss

Although the disappearance of the present institution will affect only a relatively small number of men, students and others connected with the instruction and research at Cambridge, expressed the opinion last night that to terminate abruptly the long-continued development of the library maintained by the School would cause an irreparable loss. They pointed out that this library has been built up over a longer period of years than any other collection on the subject and is now, they said, the most complete and therefore the most valuable in the world.

The date set for the break-up of the School is June 30, but thus far it has not been learned whether any arrangements are under consideration by the Rockefeller Foundation for application of the funds which have supported the City Planning School since 1929 to any other university.