Students, Faculty Raise Money For Guatemalan Relief Drive

Harvard students have donated approximately $300 to relief funds for Guatemala, and the School of Public Health last week sent a faculty member to observe administration of relief programs following last week's earthquake.

Robert Palay '78, coordinator of Guatemalan relief through the Harvard-Radcliffe Committee on American Foreign Policy, said yesterday fund raising efforts in the Houses and the Freshman Union are "proceeding very well."

Palay said he expects the final figures to be "somewhere from $800 to $1000." The Harvard effort has been more successful than fund raising campaigns on other area campuses because the House system provides ready access to students, he said.

Palay said the undergraduate campaign, which ends Friday, was "set." "We're looking for Faculty aid," he added.

The School of Public Health is furnishing a different kind of aid to Guatemala. Dr. Katherine Coolidge, assistant professor of Tropical Public Health said yesterday the School is evaluating the role it will play in the disaster relief program.

"The latest reports we have from Guatemala are that things are pretty well organized," Coolidge said. She added that the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta and the U.S. Public Health Service had done an "excellent job" there.

Coolidge said Dr. Guillermo Herrera, professor of Tropical Diseases, left last Wednesday for Guatemala to observe the situation.

Herrera was prepared to stay if needed, but he is now in Colombia. "He said the situation was well in hand," Coolidge added.

Coolidge also said a fund the school has set up for Guatemalan relief is now worth "about $2000."

"We're trying to see where the money might be needed," Coolidge, who added she would probably go to Guatemala in March, said.

The relief programs are part of an area campaign headquartered at Tufts and aimed at college campuses. June Stein, of the International Office at Tufts, said yesterday area participation has been "good," citing efforts at MIT. B.U.. B.C., Wellesley, and Tufts. "Harvard students were very generous," Stein said.