Pusey Scores President For School Bill Laxity

CLEVELAND, Ohio, May 11--President Pusey criticized President Kennedy tonight for not pushing hard enough on Federal and to education and for "talking about the need for aid, but that's all."

Referring to his White House meeting with the Board of Overseers which takes place Monday, Pusey said "I shall be seeing one of the most distinguished graduates of the University and I shall have a few things to say. I am afraid I must be critical of Mr. Kennedy."

Pusey, who made his remarks in an address to the annual meeting of the Association of Harvard Clubs, appeared nervous at the start of the speech, but he soon became emphatic, stressing his points by pounding on the rostrum.

"All the President is thinking about this year is tax reduction, according to what I read in the press," Pusey said. "I suspect a tax cut will come in Congress, but that means the Congress will be economy-minded. And we all know that one of the first expenditures to be cut will be that for education."

Congress has never given federal aid to education in itself, but always for something the government wants, Pusey added. This has been true, he said, from the land grant acts endowing agricultural colleges through the National Defense Education Act.

"It is not now a question of whether there should be federal aid to higher education, but a question of how much aid," Pusey declared. "It has taken us 300 years to build the colleges and universities we have today. We need twice as many by 1970, and we just cannot do this without federal aid."

Pusey criticized the President for presenting his aid plan in an omnibus bill covering education "from kindergarten to college." The Congress has since split the bill into separate grants, and Pusey said he was "glad of this action."

Celebrezze Refused Suggestions

"I mentioned this matter to Celebrezze," Pusey continued, but the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, a former mayor of the city where Pusey spoke, replied, "You don't know as much about politics as I do."

Pusey commented on remarks made earlier at the same meeting by Dean Baker of the Business School, who held that business had been lax in organizing forces to influence legislation. "If this is so, education is even further behind," Pusey said.

In response to a question, Pusey also criticized Ohio state legislation designed to bar controversial speakers from state-supported schools. The proposed Ohio law would ban Communists and takers of the Fifth Amendment, among others.

"There is no middle ground," Pusey said. "Either students are free or they are not free. An academic community should not be a shuttered or secluded Island. Students should be aware of the problems of the world, whether the problems are presented by John Birchers, Communists, or Nazis.

"Sometimes the public doesn't understand, but it is not true that the students are naive and are taken in by speakers," Pusey continued. "I am opposed to any law that would take the decision of choosing speakers away from responsible persons on the campus, whether student or faculty.