Wellesley and MIT Committee Urges Permanent Adoption of Joint Program

A joint committee has recommended that the Wellesley College-MIT Exchange Program experiment become permanent despite Wellesley's decision earlier this month to continue granting degrees to women only.

Wellesley president Barbara W. Newell, a member of the Joint Committee for the Wellesley-MIT Exchange, said yesterday, "The decision to remain a women's college does not mean that we do not welcome exchange students."

"This [exchange] is a complementary measure to our primary concern of looking at the educational needs of women. We are not against men," she said.

Under the experiment, now in its fifth year, undergraduate and graduate students are permitted to cross-register freely at the other institution. A regular shuttle bus operates between the two schools.

The purpose of the program is to provide a diversity in curriculum and environment, and to expose students to the different academic strengths the schools have to offer, according to Robert A. Alberty, dean of the School of Science at MIT and co-chairman of the Committee.

However, he is concerned with the lack of enthusiasm for the program among MIT women. He estimates that only five out of 400 MIT co-eds take courses at Wellesley each semester.

"The women at MIT are in a minority [ten per cent] and many do not feel fully accepted. They think the MIT community doesn't take them seriously," Alberty said yesterday.

The joint faculty, staff, and students' committee also recommended that a residence exchange, which was begun and dropped in 1971-72 because of a lack of housing at MIT, be reinstituted.

The faculties of both schools are expected to act on the recommendations at their regular meetings in April.