United States Approves Student, Faculty Exchanges with USSR

The State Department will soon release an "agreement in principle" with the Soviet Government, under which Harvard and other American universities will be able to arrange exchanges with the Universities of Moscow and Leningrad, the CRIMSON learned recently.

Details of the agreement, reached after months of talks in Washington, are not yet available. It is understood, however, that the Department plans to answer some 52 points of "people-to-people" exchange. Russian ambassador Georgi Zaroubin presented the exchange proposals in talks with Ambassador William E. Lacey last November.

Closer Intellectual Contact

William L. Langer, Coolidge Professor of History and Director of the Russian Research Center, commented yesterday, "We are convinced that only good can come from closer intellectual contact and exchange with Russia." Langer, whom Dean Bundy appointed to coordinate the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' negotiations with Iron Curtain countries, emphasized the advantages to scholars of both countries in not only getting access to formerly unavailable material, but also in making contacts with the peoples of both nations.

The agreement will permit interested universities to exchange graduate students and professors, 20 students being involved the first year and 30 the next. Students will probably complete a full academic year in Russia, but faculty members will only be away for a term or less. Universities besides Harvard eligible for participation include Columbia, Chicago, California, Indiana, and Washington, all of which have centers for Slavic studies.

It seems probable that "some central mechanism" for administering the exchange will be organized in the academic world, Langer commented, adding that financial support for the expenses of the scholars might be sought from the foundations. Langer, it is assumed, will continue to coordinate Harvard's activities related to the Russian scholars. Harvard's representatives will, under the agreement, go to the University of Leningrad on a reciprocal basis.

Individual Scholars

Langer pointed out that the University is interested in "just an exchange of individual scholars rather than of formal delegations and will seek the same kind of normal interchange as it has with scholars of other countries." The University has already invited a Russian archaeologist to Cambridge, and expects him to spend four to six weeks here next winter.

Langer declined to comment on which scholastic fields would be in greatest demand for exchange, but expressed the conviction that there were many areas in which Russians and Americans would have similar interests in sending and receiving personnel. Since there will be "such a large field from which to draw," Langer added, a degree of competency in Russian will probably be advantageous to applicants. This advantage will have no relation, however, to the field of study of the applicant.