'Program' Official Sees Final Success of Drive

"The Program for Harvard College will not fail to reach its $82.5 million goal," Laurence O. Pratt '26, public relations director of the drive, asserted yesterday. If the Program, directed by H. Irving Pratt '26, is to meet its June deadline, $27.5 million must be raised in four months.

Approximately six personal gifts totalling $20.5 million should furnish much of the needed money. Fund raisers expect both alumni and non-alumni sources to provide these gifts. "We hope we can uncover for Harvard the same kind of gift represented by Mr. Mellon's $15 million contribution to Yale," the public relations director said.

"Anybody close to the Program believes that the goal will certainly be achieved," Pratt continued. "The only question is whether it will be achieved on schedule This will depend on how successful we are in securing these few very large gifts."

The Program has received already 87 donations of over $100,000 each. "No other college," Pratt stated, "has ever even approached this unprecedented number."

Campaign managers also hope to receive about 4,000 smaller gifts from alumni to make up the balance of the goal. At present 23,000 alumni, 50 per cent of the college's living graduates have donated to the Program--"an excellent record," according to Program fund raisers.

Tuition to Rise

Whether or not the College reaches its goal by June, Pratt forecast an unavoidable rise in student tuition and board costs, during coming years. "I think it's almost inevitable that the price charged for a college education will go up, just like the price charged for everything else," he asserted.

As a direct result of the national publicity given to the College's drive for funds, educational institutons all over the nation have raised their capital fund campaign goals, Pratt added.