Council's International Committee Prepares New Seminars, Larger Student Exchange Plans

More foreign seminars for the "exchange of ideas" head the 1951 projects of the Student Council's International Activities Committee. The program received its first impetus following the East-West split. At present, the committee sponsors a seminar in Germany, an International Student Information Service, and two student projects in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

A sub-committee of the Council group offers a wide variety of tours for students. One of them is a package trip for periods ranging from one week to the entire summer. This system supplies guides and makes all travel arrangements.

Another tour service provides a car, an itinerary fitted to the student's specific wishes, and an interpreter-guide.

Sapers Heads Group

The International Committee, headed by Carl M. Sapers '53, has an unusual background-one marked by bitterness between men from the Western nations and the East.

The group was started to represent the College at the World Students Congress at Prague in 1946, out of which grow the International Union of Students.

Delegates from the Western nations, however, felt that the Communist-controlled nations were using the meetings for propaganda purposes. They stated that propaganda soeped into even the agenda and advertising material coming from Prague, the headquarters of the I.U.S.

The United States groups broke with the I.U.S. early in 1947; other nations followed. The last to leave was Britain, which broke ties last year. They all feared that a new Western organization modeled on the I.U.S. would become another propaganda group-this time for the West.

In December of 1950, the free nations of the West instead drew together at the Stockholm Conference and formulated a Student Mutual Assistance program.

This made several rather general plans for student health, housing, studies of undeveloped areas, and international scholarships.

The Harvard Council-under this Student Mutual Assistance program and working under a mandate from the National Student Association-has been engaged on the four projects mentioned earlier.

N.S.A. first decided that another European seminar, besides Salzburg, would be a worthwhile project. Its main purpose would also be to aid free exchange of ideas between students of the West and Germans.

Program Continues

Robert L. Fischelis '49, graduate secretary of PBH, directed the seminar last summer in Frankfurt. Because of the success of this seminar, it will probably be held again this year-lasting, according to tentative plans, from the middle of July until the end of August. And, although 17 countries participated in 1950, next year's seminar is planned to be more international both in administration and participation.

The program for the seminar began with morning and afternoon sessions. The different sessions broke up into four groups which discussed a specific topic for one week. Topics included student self-government organization and participation, influence on university teaching, student economic condition, and relations of student to community.

John J. McCloy, United States High Commissioner for Germany, praised the work of the German seminar. He said: "The strategic place held by students of higher learning in any nation makes any attempt to stimulate democratic attitudes and practices of more than passing interest."

"From what I have learned about the seminar, the German student leaders were stimulated to continue their efforts is re-establishing and extending self-government in German universities and technical schools.

"The seminar provided opportunities is exchange experiences and practices in self-government. The personal contacts of German students with student leaders from England, Denmark, France, Swedes, Switzerland, were also of inestimable value."

A request has been made to the United States High Commission in Germany for support of the project. Members of the International Activities group also have discussed with the Rockefeller Foundation a possible grant for the extension of the German seminar and the establishment of student projects in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Seminars for Asia?

William R. Polk '51 went to the Middle East last summer and made a report on student conditions there, while James P. Grant 3L prepared a similar report as Southeast Asia. Conclusions from both were similar: students tended to favor democracy, yet found their countries hindered because of the high illiteracy raise.

Grant and Polk stated that seminar projects should be encouraged in keeping with the growing favor shown toward democracy. They contended that the only way the students could understand democracy would be to show them how it operates in different countries.

Other projects of the International Committee are equally important in bringing about better understanding between the United States and foreign countries. One of these is the International Student Information Service by which the Council exchanges facts on college life with foreign universities.

A final program which the committee hopes to develop soon is an international scholarship plan for the financing of students here and abroad.