LOWES WARNS AGAINST AID TO UNIVERSITIES

Declaring that federal aid to universities may present "the most threatening pressure of all," John L. Lowes, Financial Vice-President of Harvard, last weekend warned an Association of American Colleges meeting in Philadelphia against accepting state aid.

Lowes recognized that refusal to take government funds might be "at the expense of material sacrifices," but said that future independence and academic freedom for educational institutions will be impaired by federal subsidization.

A year ago, the University declined a National Youth Administration grant, and Lowes' speech in Philadelphia apparently is the basis for that refusal.

Before the Association, the Harvard speaker traced the role of government in education. State intervention over the past 100 years has been decentralized and motivated by "what we call petty politics." The major fear is the national government, which in the past ten years has "nearly doubled" college grants.