Harvard to Receive $1 Million For Australian Studies Chair

The Australian government will give $1 million to Harvard this summer to establish an Australian Studies Endowment Fund, William S. Olney, director of Special Projects, said yesterday.

The fund, a gesture to the U.S. bicentennial, will finance a chair in Australian studies designed "to promote awareness and understanding of Australia" at Harvard and throughout the United States, Olney said.

New Courses

Harvard will also use the funds to offer courses in history, fine arts, literature, government and law, he added.

Dean Rosovsky will head a permanent "Chair in Australian Studies Advisory Committee" to make plans for and recommend appointments to the chair, Olney said.

Individual departments will grant short-term Faculty appointments for several years before creating a tenured position.

Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced that Harvard would receive the gift on July 4, 1975.

For the past six months President Bok, Dean Rosovsky, and Dwight H. Perkins, acting director of the East Asian Research Center, have been working out details with members of the Australian government's U.S. Bicentennial Celebrations Board.