Divinity School Raise $550,000 in Fund Drive

The Divinity School has already raised $550,000 towards its initial goal $2,000,000, Graham Blaine '16, chairman of the fund drive announced yesterday. The drive began in February.

The campaign's total goal is $5,000,000, but once the first $2,000,000 mark reached, the Corporation will donate an extra $500,000 and the first of the proposed changes in the school will go into effect. A new dean will be chosen to succeed Willard L. Sperry, the faculty will undergo revamped, and the school buildings will undergo a thorough reconditioning.

Blaine and his associates have set an office in New York to act as a clearing center for the drive. He said that the are now some 40 people on the nation committee as well as a 20-member executive board to handle the campaign.

"These last few months have given evidence of the drive's success," Blaine said. "We've been approaching many Harvard alumni, non-Harvard people from foundations, and men of wealth who are interested in an area of ethics, morality, and Christianity in the University.

Charles McCurdy, Executive secrets of the drive, said that along with the initial success there has been plenty discouragement, "but nothing to make want to throw in the sponge."

Blaine has scheduled a meeting in Boston June 16 for national and executive committee members in this area.

"We've got things well organized he in the east," he said, "and have very active workers in Boston, New York, a Philadelphia."