Ford Announces Grant to Miles

Miles College in Birmingham Alabama, where former Harvard Dean John U. Monro '35 has just begun his duties as dean of freshman studies, is one of 52 southern Negro colleges sharing a $1.1-million grant from the Ford Foundation.

The program, the foundation announced this week, will attempt to strengthen the colleges' academic standing by enlisting the cooperation of nearby predominantly white colleges. It will also initiate self-studies by the institutions to bring about specific reforms of weaknesses.

The Ford Foundation hopes that concentrating the initially small sums of money available on such problems as inadequate faculties and deficient facilities will open the way to support from the Federal government.

$75,600 has been earmarked to set up the cooperative arrangements between Negro and predominantly white colleges. Miles will be paired with Birmingham-Southern College, a residential liberal arts college about five miles away.

Lucius H. Pitts, president of the college, has been discussing the grant with Ford officials for the past few weeks, Monro said in a telephone interview yesterday. He pointed out that Birmingham-Southern has a good academic standing and has showed itself willing to help Miles in the past.