Jordan Reports Necessity For Radcliffe's Expansion

Radcliffe College can and should increase its size to an "absolute maximum of another 100 students," which would bring the total enrollment to 1,200, Wilbur K. Jordan, President of Radcliffe, asserted in the Official Register's Report of Officers for the 1957-58 year.

"The College is simply too small to fulfill its great responsibilities to young womanhood in this country," Jordan claimed, citing the quality of applicants for admission in the last six years as the decisive factor in his conclusion. He said that "Radcliffe has no moral right to limit undergraduate enrollments to the present 1,097 under present circumstances and pressures."

"I believe the College can increase in slow and carefully measured steps to an absolute maximum of another 100 students, if another dormitory and the cooperative house can quickly be provided," Jordan stated. If undergaduate enrollment exceeds 1,200, he said "every physical facility will be strained beyond efficient use" and the endowments in scholarship resources will be once more hopelessly inadequate.

Asks for More Transfers

Jordan asserted further that Radcliffe "should encourage applications for admission by transfer of serious students, of demonstrated academic attainments." Estimating that "fully 10 per cent of the places in this College belong as of academic right to such mature applicants," Jordan criticized the College's present indefensible policy" of admitting fewer than one per cent of the total undergraduate enrollment on such status.

Reviewing the College's achievements in 1958, Jordan claimed that Radcliffe has made "steady and substantial progress" toward some of its main goals. He cited the opening of Comstock Hall as a step forward in student housing, noting that 91 per cent of the enrollment is presently housed on campus, as contrasted with 60 per cent as recently as 1945.

The Ten-Year Development Program for raising $10 million is "almost precisely on schedule," Jordan revealed. He also noted that the Alumnae Association's recent decision to merge the efforts of the Alumnae Fund and the Development Fund for the next three years will be "extremely important" in further solicitation.