New Preacher May Regulate PBH Activity

Provost Buck's six-man committee of leading clergymen, searching for a new chairman of the Board of Preachers, has not yet found its man.

But members of the committee have formulated a detailed mental picture of what he will be like. He will be young, vigorous, and a scholar--able to hold his own with other faculty members and questioning students. He must also be a man who will inspire a congregation. In other words, another Rhinehold Niebuhr.

Despite the fact that there are few men who fit these qualifications, the committee has refused to lower its objective standards. They may be scouring the country for quite a while.

Theoretically, the new chairman will have no more control over Brooks House than did his predecessor, Dean Willard V. Sperry. During the past few years, however, Sperry, tied up with a shaky Divinity School, has not closely supervised PBH activities.

The new man will not face the same burdens, since he will have no connection with the Divinity School.

Just how much religious emphasis the new director will inject into the running of Brooks House depends largely on the committee's choice. It is significant, however, that both President Conant and Provost Buck feel the new man should have a large say in who should occupy the position of PBH's graduate secretary. There is nothing to prevent him also from being a clergyman, like the graduate secretary of Yale's social service center, Dwight Hall.