Harvard Foundation to Continue; Drive Lags

The work of the Harvard Foundation for Advanced Study and Research--as the alumni organization of four of the University's graduate schools--will continue after June 30 when the group's $1,300,000 fund drive is scheduled to be completed. The organization, which serves the Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences, Public Administration, Education, and Design, has only raised about $250,000 towards its rather large goal. University officials still view the foundation with enthusiasm, pointing to the interest in Harvard which the organization has reestablished in many alumni of the four graduate schools.

The foundation was set up as more than a fund raising group, officials say, for it also has the purpose of organizing committees and branches throughout the country which will tie the alumni to their respective school. The immediate goal of the foundation is to raise $1,000,000 for the new Graduate Center on Jarvin Field and $300,000 for fellowships and similar research work.

While the number of alumni (out of the 20,000 from these schools) who have responded to the drive has been large, the foundation has failed so far to get the number of really large contributions most University fund drives get to make them a success.

The decision to continue the foundation was not unexpected, as it was supposed to be a permanent body when it was established in November of 1948. However, the group has been very expensive for the University to maintain so far. Organizing local committees took a great deal of time, because so little contact work had been done with graduate alumni previously.

Organizing Work Nears End

Now that most of the organizing work is out of the way, the University will handle the foundation completely itself after July 1, no longer using the expensive professional fund-raising firm that has been helping it so far.

The foundation is also closing its New York office and limiting all its permanent facilities to Cambridge. The foundation office locally will have a permanent secretary to handle alumni affairs for those four graduate schools.

The foundation has had difficulty in working with GSAS alumni; these men did not belong to any particular class while getting their Ph.D.'s and M.A.'s at the University. Many of these men associated with only a very few persons while they were in Cambridge.

Indications are that the University plans to use the foundation as a means for increasing interest in the graduate schools. It is hoped that the number of applications to the various schools would be increased through public realtions work of the foundation.

Ask For Funds Annually

In addition to the social activities among alumni sponsored by the foundation, this group would also annually send out appeals for gifts to the graduate schools' alumni, much as the Harvard Fund now writes College alumni. These appeals would not really fall into the "drive" category, as they would be conducted in a "low pressure" manner.

Men would be written to and given the opportunity to donate to the foundation, but there would only be a simple mail message.

In the past graduate schools relied quite heavily on money given by College alumni to the Harvard Fund but transferred by the Corporation to graduate use. The University ended that policy last year.

If he current $1,300,000 drive is not completed successfully by June 30, it is probable that the foundation will extend the time in which to raise the money by at least a couple of years. That would postpone the starting of the annual letter campaign.

Reunion in June

As part of its work, the foundation has arranged a reunion program for the first time in University history for the alumni of its four schools who are in Cambridge at Commencement time.

The men who attended the University's graduate schools after going to college elsewhere naturally seem to owe their first allegiance to the place where they spent their undergraduate days. The foundation has been surprised by the well-attended meetings all over the country, when they approached men who had previously almost been ignored by the University.