Rector of Berlin University Asks Exchange Plan Support

Professor Ernst E. Hirsch, Rector of the Free University of Berlin, will confer today with President Pusey about the possibilities of an extended scholarship program between his institution and Harvard.

Hirsch, who heads the university of 7,000 students in the western sector of Berlin, will spend three weeks in the United States, representing the German university at Columbia's Bicentennial celebration, and to investigate expansion of the exchange student program.

"We're working to enlarge it," he said in an interview yesterday, after conferring with Edward Reynolds '15, administrative vice-president. If an exchange program is worked out, it would mean that College students could gain academic credit for work done at the Free University.

At present, there are 19 American students at the Berlin school, two from Harvard. This is the highest percentage of students from any foreign countries studying there.

Almost 40 percent of the enrollment is made up of students who have fled the Soviet sector of Berlin in spite of the presence of The Old University there. this ratio is being maintained annually, Hirsch said.

Conant Frequent Visitor

Because of the divided status of the city, "we know every day what freedom means," the German educator said.

Neo-Naziism, among students at least, seems to be exaggerated, he added. "For the students, Hitlerism is historical fact. They were only children when he was in power."

German High Commissioner James B. Conant '14, President of the University, emeritus, is a frequent visitor to the Free University, founded in 1948, Hirsch noted. "He hasn't forgotten that he was formerly a professor," he commented.

Hirsch was welcomed here by members of the Student Council and Gunter Rischer, an exchange student from the Free University, who is studying here this year.

The trip to this country is the first for the Rector. In addition to New York and Boston, he will visit Berkeley and Stanford in California and also Chicago and Washington, D.C.