Praise Reserved On Millikan Plan To Create ISYA

University officials and students actively involved in peace corps projects expressed reserved enthusiasm last night for the International Youth Service Agency as proposed by Max Millikan, Director of International Affairs at M.I.T.

Although pleased by the tone of the report, which suggested that the agency be a service rather than a weapon, several men expressed concern over specific recommendations.

Donald J. Eberly, assistant director of the International Students Office, called the proposal "too small." While Millikan suggested limiting the project to "several thousand" people, Eberly saw an eventual need for several hundred thousand. He noted that Afghanistan hopes to increase its elementary educational facilities from 800 to 12,000 schools by 1980, and that in that nation alone, a teacher training program could effectively employ several thousand Americans.

Sigmund Gives Opinion

The difficulty of determining which private groups are worthy of government authorization and subsidy was cited by Paul E. Sigmund, Jr., Allston Burr Senior Tutor of Quincy House. Sigmund suggested that the agency should endorse only University projects in expressing concern that "political, ideological, and religious problems might turn the program into a madhouse."

Michael Hornblow '62, vice-President of the Harvard Committee for a Youth Service Program, criticized the supervisory nature of the agency, which he said would "lead to anarchy." Hornblow asserted that the plan, which would supervise and subsidize private projects but create none of its own, would be less effective than a centralized program with clearly defined goals and rigid criteria for selection of candidates.

All three commended the program's concern for organization, the basic problem of any plan, rather than for peripheral issues.