University Is Not Founding Unitarian Hall

A Unitarian Divinity House will not be established at the Divinity School, it has been learned.

Originally the O'Brian Committee's report on renovation of the Divinity School included a suggestion that the Unitarians become officially recognized at the School through a special center. The Administration will not follow this proposal, however, and the School will continue unconnected with any denomination.

Divinity Hall, originally built by Unitarians, had been the site suggested in the 1947 O'Brian report for the Unitarian center. The Committee's recommendations were first made public last month.

The Committee had recommended that the School remain non-denominational but that other denominations be allowed to organize centers similar to the Unitarian House. It is now definite that no such denominational House will be founded within the Divinity School.

Students at the Divinity School here will still be able to take courses interchangeably with the Episcopal Thelogical Seminary, Boston University Seminary (Methodist), and the Andover-Newton Seminary (Congregational). Such an arrangement has been in operation for the past 15 years.

Faculty of Religion

The O'Brian report also proposed the establishment of a graduate faculty of religion here to be in charge of the Ph.D. and Th.D. programs. The Committee recommended that this be done together with the above Boston schools and that an inter-institutional faculty committee be established for those divinity professors who have made especially valuable contributions in their fields.