$250 Million Capital Drive To Open Today

Harvard will announce the start of the five-year, $250 million Harvard Campaign today with ceremonies for 700 visiting alumni and alumni wives, an address by former Secretary of the Treasury C. Douglas Dillon '31, and lectures from well-known faculty members.

Sources in the development office said yesterday alumni have pledged at least $52 million in advance contributions. Fund--raising officials traditionally gauge a campaign's chances for success on the size of donors' advance pledges.

Head Above Water

Proceeds from the campaign will help fund faculty salaries, student financial aid, educational programs like the Core Curriculum, building renovations, and other undergraduate activities. Faculty officials stress that most of the money will support College activities, and that the campaign will not fund many new programs but rather protect existing ones from inflation.

Speakers tomorrow will include Dean Rosovsky; President Bok; Andrew Heiskell, chairman of Time, Inc., and a recently appointed Corporation member; Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, co-chairman of the campaign and a Corporation member; and Dillon.

Thomas M. Reardon, director of development, said yesterday he was not sure what Dillon would speak about. "Twenty-five years ago he spoke here about how he views Harvard, its impact on our society, and that impact on the rest of the world, so he might pick up that theme again," he said.

In the afternoon, Harvard faculty members will lecture. E. O Wilson, Baird Professor of Science, will speak on sociobiology; James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government, on "the changing nature of American politics"; John T. Dunlop, Lamont University Professor, on "the future of business and government;" and Stanley H. Hoffman, professor of government, on Soviet-American relations.

Tomorrow night the alumni, who are chairmen of class committees or major advance donors, will attend a cocktail party and dinner at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston.

On Saturday they will watch the Princeton football game.