Radcliffe Sells Longfellow Hall To Graduate School of Education

Radcliffe College has sold Longfellow Hall of the Harvard Graduate School of Education for a little more than $1 Million, President Mary I. Bunting announced yesterday at the College's 83rd Convocation exercise in the First Congregational Church.

"For some time," she reported, "the School of Education has been considering whether to rebuild on its present site or move to a new location. The purchase of Longfellow Hall, along with the acquisition of additional land across Appian Way, gives them at last a respectable home."

The School of Education will take over the building on July 1, 1962. This year Harvard and Radcliffe will continue to schedule undergraduates classes in Longfellow. In the future, Mrs. Bunting said, the building will be used for undergraduates when educating classes are not in session.

Noting that a substantial portion of the students enrolled in the GSE are women, President Bunting explained, "By turning over to the School of Education a building explained, "By turning over to the School of Education a building in the Radcliffe Yard, we further the education of women at Harvard, which has always been Radcliffe's basic aim."

House Groupings Announced

The money recieved from the sale of Longfellow will be used to further the reorganization of the College into house centers. This year students affiliated with Holmes. Moors, and Comstock will belong to North house; those in Cabot, Whitman, Eliot, and the new Wilbur K. Jordan co-operative house will be in East house; Briggs, and Barnard will form South house.

"We are not waiting for major new facilities before doing what we can to enrich the intellectual, social, and recreational life of the college,"

In the near future the College will build a fourth house for approximately 275 undergraduates, to relieve the present overcrowding.

Library Center Planned

President Bunting also described plans for a library-study-tutorial-forum center located on the dormitory quadrangle. It would include a library comparable to that in the Radcliffe Yard as well as providing faculty offices, seminar and tutorial room, snack bar, and space for faculty parking. One wing of this center might eventually house the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study.

"The organization of the undergraduate college into house centers necessitates a re-examination of student government," Mrs. Bunting declared. "I shall watch with great interest your approach to this problem for it has always seemed to me that the college community provides a particularly favorable sport to explore possibilities and resolve difficulties inherent in democratic government.

President Bunting also announced that Radcliffe has abolished its physical education requirement. Beginning this year, the College will offer an expanded, voluntary program in sports, dance, and recreational activities.