Radcliffe Plans Construction Of $2 Million Graduate Quad

Radcliffe plans a $2,000,000 Graduate Quadrangle as soon as the necessary funds can be raised, President W. Kitchener Jordan announced yesterday.

The campaign for the building and endowment fund formally opens today. The College hopes to break ground in the spring, with the tentative opening scheduled for the fall of 1955.

To be located behind the Radcliffe Health Center, on Brattle and Ash Sts., the new Quadrangle will house approximately 150 graduate students, with additional meeting and dining facilities for 300. The Graduate Center will include sound proof rooms for typing or musical practice, a TV lounge, snack counter, sun deck, laundry rooms, a game room and miscellaneous lounges.

Graduate students now live in three small off-campus houses, accommodating only 39. Other students have found their own living quarters in Cambridge.

One Element Lacking

"Only one element of strength is lacking to give the Radcliffe Graduate School the full stature of greatness," Jordan said. "It requires a physical center: there is no focus which is so necessary for the growth of cultivated human beings."

Mrs. Bernice B. Cronkhite, Dean of the Graduate School, feels that the Graduate Center will be "unique in the world today. It will make possible the intellectual and social intermingling so essential in any graduate community."

The highly organized national fund drive will be directed by Harry B. Taplin, assistant to the President. Taplin, President Jordan, and the College Deans plan to travel around the country to raise money. The $2,000,000 goal includes a sum for much-needed graduate fellowships.

Other women's colleges have endorsed the need for a Radcliffe graduate center. "We encourage many of our students to go on to Radcliffe for their graduate work, Sarah G. Blanding, President of Vassar College, said. "I know that a Center such as you envision will inevitably heighten the experience of young women at Radcliffe."

Swarthmore's former President John W. Nason said, "In living together, graduate students will think together and broaden each other's horizons. For the sake of the important contribution which Radcliffe has to make to higher education in this country, I hope you find ready support and achieve your goal."