CLARIFIES THE UPWARD BOUND IMAGE

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I feel that I must write to you in order to clarify a number of misunderstandings and errors that were evident in your article on Upward Bound in the October 16 edition of the Crimson.

First of all--since your article was meant to be informative and was not--let me explain that Harvard Upward Bound is one of 299 such programs in the nation. The aim of our program is to give intensive academic support to economically disadvanted high school students from Cambridge in the hope that they will continue their education beyond high school--ideally, though not necessarily, at a four-year college. We work with students for two to three years offering a six week residential summer program with an emphasis on building academic skills and furthering personal development, and an academic year program centered around tutoring at our after school study center and college placement for seniors. We supplement the academics with on-going cultural and recreational activities during both the summer and the academic year programs.

Concerning our relationship with the University there are three important matters to clarify. 1) The University has not "increasingly shifted the burden to the government." We are a cost-sharing program with 80 per cent of the financial support coming from the Office of Education and 20 per cent from the Graduate School of Education. This has been true for the past four years. After the first year of the program a shift was made from a 90 per cent government support, 10 per cent Harvard support to the present 80 per cent - 20 per cent system which has remained. 2) We would like very much to have easy access to more Harvard facilities, but this by no means implies that the University has been uncooperative in this respect. I would emphasize that in the past we have received both assistance and cooperation from many people throughout the University. I would like to see this continue and suggest the possibility of issuing some sort of Bursar's card to Upward Bound students to facilitate recognition and acceptance within the University community. 3) With regard to our students "never see(ing) Harvard" in the summer; last summer we chose to run our program at the Walnut Hill School. All other summers we have operated on the Harvard campus.

I hope that this will give a fairer picture of Upward Bound. I would also hope that former Upward Bound students and staff from other programs would take a minute to come by and visit us at 3 Garden Street. Barbara Lass   Executive Director