National Student Group To Boost JFK Library

Over 2000 colleges and universities across the country have been asked to participate in a national student fund drive for the John F. Kennedy Library.

Conceived at Harvard and presently being organized by a committee of students from some two dozen Boston-area colleges, the drive seeks a tangible expression of national student feeling for the late President.

The plan has received official approval and assistance Within the past two weeks from the Kennedy Library Corporation and from the Kennedy family.

The student fund drive will function as part of the national fund drive which has a $10 million goal. The student drive has no announced goal, but student organizers hope to raise at least $300,000.

The student fund may be used to build a special room or wing of the Library to house the history of President Kennedy's youth and those of his programs, such as the Peace Corps, which are directly relevant to college students.

As a result of a meeting in Washington last week between Senior Edward M. Kennedy '54 and Carl J. Allen '65, chairman of the student organizing committee, the student group will establish headquarters in the John F. Kennedy apartment at 122 Bowdoin Street, Boston.

A letter mailed a week ago to student council presidents of 2100 colleges requested that student government groups sponsor campus fund drives during the last week in April. Central direction for the drive will come from Boston, but a national organization of state and regional student chairmen is also being formed to widen the base of the appeal.

The idea of a national student fund drive for the Library originated in late December when a number of Harvard students asked the University Administration for a memorial to the late President, Proposals for a John F. Kennedy chair, lecture series, or tenth House were originally considered, but were all rejected by, the University as conflicting with Harvard's support of the Kennedy Library. A Harvard fund drive for the Library was then suggested which evolved into the present national program.