Ford Grant to Establish Two Chairs for College

Two chairs similar in nature to the University professorships have been established, it has been announced. The positions are designed to contribute specifically to the intellectual life of undergraduates in the College, rather than on the University level.

President Pusey stated yesterday that no one has yet been selected to fill the new positions, but that scholars from any field of learning are eligible. The two professors, like the six University professors, will not necesarily be assigned to a specific department in the College, he added.

Named for Lowell, Ford

The chairs are named for A. Lawrence Lowell, former president of the University, who led in major developments in college education, and Henry Ford II, who has actively aided college education through his leadership of the Ford Foundation.

Slightly more than half of the "accomplishment grant" awarded to the University by the Ford Foundation in December will be used to finance the professorships. The grant, given in recognition of earlier steps to improve faculty salaries here, totalled $1,500,000. The Foundation also donated $3,000,000 for an endowment to increase present faculty salaries.

Pusey Comments

Pusey, commenting upon the professorships, emphasized "the importance which the governing boards attach to the College program within the University." "I hope," he continued, "that the appointment of distinguished men from different fields of knowledge will lead us to further enrichment of the undergraduate program."

Lowell, with the financial aid of Edward Harkness, supervised the construction of the undergraduate Houses and much of the physical plant of the College. He also designed much of the present undergraduate curriculum--the system of concentration, general examinations, the tutorial system, and the universal participation in athletics.

Pusey credited Ford with bringing about "the greatest single contribution to undergraduate liberal education in the history of our country" through his philanthropy and the Ford Foundation.