Leahy to Replace Whitlock As Federal Relations Aide

Richard G. Leahy, assistant dean to the Faculty for Resources and Planning, will succeed Charles P. Whitlock as assistant to the President for civic and governmental affairs.

Leahy, a 41-year-old geophysicist, will continue in his post as assistant dean. He served as coordinator for governmental relations under Whitlock, who became associate dean of Harvard College last month.

"I have the responsibility of keeping the President informed of developments in the federal area which concern the university," Leahy said yesterday.

Leahy said he is especially concerned with the possibility that the federal government will reduce its financial aid to universities. "When about a third of your tutorial budget is supported by the federal government, a limiting of funds is of great concern," he added.

Sputnik

Leahy said it was "unfortunate" that "everybody's appetite was increased so much in the post-Sputnik era. [Sputnik's launching] was a magic event for the support of first science and then the other branches of higher education."

Leahy said that his office would not lobby directly in Washington for increased aid to universities or against legislation intended to curb campus disorders but would continue to support the American Council on Education, which represents the interest of educational institutions in Congress.

"I will certainly have a lot less involvement on the civic and state level," Leahy said. The appointment of Edward

S. Gruson to the newly created post of assistant to the President for community affairs in May, 1969, changed the responsibilities of the assistant for governmental affairs.

"The 'civic' is really entirely in Mr. Gruson's domain," he said. "We only conflict on the state level."

Leahy, who graduated from Yale in 1952, received both his masters and doctorate from Harvard. He was appointed assistant director of the laboratories of the division of Engineering and Applied Physics in 1961, and was director from 1963 until he became assistant dean of the college in 1968.