HSA Prepares For Drive To Raise $50,000 Capital

Harvard Student Agencies representatives have been laying the groundwork for a $50,000 fund-raising drive to start a capital risk fund program, Dustin M. Burke '52, HSA board chairman, said yesterday.

The drive is part of a $150,000 HSA project to supply money for a new building and miscellaneous office supplies.

The fund, Burke explained, will provide capital "for projects which would be extremely valuable, but which might need financial backing for several years before they became profitable." With support from a capital risk fund, HSA could try to convince outside industries to use services which Harvard students could provide.

Among the projects which the capital risk fund will support is HSA's Information Gathering Service. Since 1962, the 'IGS has done interviewing, research, and translating for business and industry outside the University.

With the help of the capital risk fund program, Burke said, the IGS might be able to offer up to $25,000 in student research jobs per year. The translating service alone, Burke said, could expand into a $10,000 per year service. "All that is needed is an agressive publicity campaign in outside industry," Burke said.

New Books

HSA also plans to expand its publishing program. The Agency now publishes Let's Go, a student guide to Europe. With capital funds from the capital risk fund project, the corporation can being publishing other types of student guides. Burke pointed out that Let's Go had been recommended by Time magazine as one of the four best guides to Europe.

Most of the new projects, would simply involve expansion of the present agencies. In the future, however, the risk capital program would "enable as to try new ideas and give students a chance to work at new, exciting kinds of jobs," Burke said.