Ford Gift May Help Improve Legal Library

The Law School will probably expand its library facilities under the Ford Foundation's recent $2,050,000 grant for International Studies, John A. King '40, Secretary for International Legal Studies, said yesterday.

A large part of the grant is designated for construction, but King emphasized, however, that no final decision has been reached about a new building or possible additions to present facilities. Currently the school badly needs more office space and seminar rooms.

Under the terms of the grant, the Foundation pays only half of building costs. The source of these University funds is still uncertain.

Any library construction will make the present collection on international studies more accessible to students, and increase study space for researchers in the stacks. A large part of the library is currently housed in inaccessible sub-basements.

More Stack Space

Under the grant the University will also expand its research facilities along with physical improvements. Professors will be able to get University funds for specialized projects such as preparing course material. Until now most of the International Studies research has been done for outside agencies, using funds from these agencies.

"This grant fits into the rapid expansion all over the country of International Legal Studies since the war," King said. Simultaneously with Harvard's grant, the Ford Foundation gave Columbia, Stanford and Michigan $2,600,000 for similar projects.

Since World War II the curriculum of the Law School has grown from one course and one seminar to 15 courses and seminars out of the 62 given by the Law School.

"Lawyers are dealing with an entirely new situation," King said. "The world has an effect upon him, both as a lawyer and a community leader, which nobody even contemplated 20 years ago. International Studies have become an integral part of legal training instead of an unimportant esoteric study."