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The President of Phillips Brooks House said last night that he was "appalled" by the administration of a Domestic Peace Corps project in Harlem, although he favors the concept of a National Service Corps.
John W. Clifton '63 visited the site of the controversial project along with Richard L. Levine '63, vice-president of PBH, on Jan. 31. The two interviewed George W. Broadfield, one of the three directors of Associated Community Teams, Inc., which runs the corps.
"We couldn't get satisfactory answers to any of our questions about the program," Clifton told the CRIMSON yesterday. "I don't know whether Broadfield wasn't giving straight answers or whether he just didn't know the facts. But I can't see why he'd hide the answers if he know them."
"The idea of a Domestic Peace Corps is an excellent one," Clifton explained, "but it needs very good organization, which this program does not appear to have."
Clifton said Broadfield seemed to have no idea what his volunteers would do after their training period. Broadfield said they would be working in the local settlement houses, but could give no information concerning specific projects.
The PBH officials made the trip to see if any of the Peace Corps' social service techniques could be applied to PBH's work at Harvard. "We heard that they had a lot of new ideas," Clifton said, "but if they do, they haven't told Broadfield about them."
ACT was set up by a $250,000 grant from a Presidential committee on juvenile delinquency and from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
The Corps has come under strong Congressional criticism recently. Rep. H.R. Gross (R-Iowa) termed ACT's $157,000 expenditure for personnel "ridiculous" and Sen. John R. Williams (R-Del.) criticized the project's connections with Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.).
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