Bulletin Editorial Defends End of Department of Regional Planning as a Budgetary Necessity

In reply to attacks on the Department of Regional Planning's death at the end of this year, the main editorial in the current Alumni Bulletin points out that the appointment of a "distinguished and representative committee to advise the corporation...guarantees that the problems of the department will receive sympathetic and exhaustive consideration."

The editorial goes on to explain the demise of the department as a result of the small enrollment. With the graduation of three students this year only two will continue, while a staff of four would have to be retained.

Delano Heads Committee

Heading the committee to consider the problem is Frederic A. Delano '85, distinguished as a railroad executive and a military engineer, and at present head of the National Resources Planning Board. Other members are Gilmore D. Clark, Dean of the Cornell University School of Architecture; Alfred Bettman '94, a leader in the Cincinnati regional planning movement; Garrison Norton, secretary.

The Harvard Faculty of Design is represented by Dean Joseph F. Hudnut '09, Professor Walter Gropius, chairman of the Department of Architecture. Professor Bremer W. Pond, chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Professor Henry V. Hubbard of the Department of Regional Planning.

Concerning the budgetary problem raised by the continuance of the department the Bulletin comments, "To do one great task expensively may be quite unfair to other tasks no less significant."

It concludes, "In Regional Planning the situation would seem to be one in which the University has wisely sought advice as to ways in which a cherished aim may be achieved without unjustified expense."

Opposition to the department's end has centered on the fact that the need for regional planning is ever increasing, that the approach to the study of regional planning is very different from that of architecture, where it will be placed if the department is dropped, and that it is unfortunate that the value of a department should be measured by the money income.

It has been further alleged in letters of graduates that a partial cause of the change is Dean Hudunt's desire to oust Professor Hubbard, current head of the department.