Johnson Names Bunting To One-Year AEC Term

President Johnson has named Mary I. Bunting, president of Radcliffe College, to the Atomic Energy Commission for one year. Her name was sent to the Senate Thursday for confirmation.

The first woman to serve on the Commission, Mrs. Bunting will fill the final year of the term of retiring oil industrialist, Thomas E. Wilson, and will return to Radcliffe in June, 1965. She has been granted a year's leave of absence beginning this June by the Radcliffe College Council in order to assume her new $22,-500-a-year post.

At a meeting this afternoon, the Council will work out the administrative arrangements for the coming academic year.

Mrs. Bunting said Friday she would probably go to Washington for a few days a week before the end of the semester, but she "hopes to see this semester through" and not really leave Cambridge until about July 1.

Last Monday, she had lunch in Washington with the other Commission members and attended her first briefing session. Although she has served on many governmental committees, the AEC appointment is her first full-time government position. She did, however, do research for the AEC at Yale from 1950 to 1955.

In a letter sent to all Radcliffe students, Mrs. Bunting said the decision to leave had been difficult. "However, in view of my belief that women's education has been hampered all along the line by the lack of apparent opportunities open to educated women in this country, I could scarcely refuse the President's personal invitation to serve a year on the Commission."

She told the undergraduates she was "confident that things will go well here through the year. Radcliffe is in good shape, with strong leadership and a co-operative outlook in the Governing Boards, the College staff, and the student body."

In a telephone interview Friday, Mrs. Bunting said her absence wouldn't come during a crucial year for Radcliffe. "It's actually a pretty good time as far as policy questions are concerned. The year after next will be the year for the really big push on the Fourth House." Only the actual construction of the study center is scheduled for next year, she said.

Mrs. Bunting hopes to be back in Cambridge for weekends during the coming year, and "will certainly always be on hand if there is a policy question people want to ask me about." But, she cautioned, "It will be a pretty clean break for a year."

The newly appointed AEC member does not plan to move to Washington with her family. "I'll just find a nice, inexpensive flat and camp out for a year," she said