Pratt Says Program May Reach $82.5 Million by Commencement

The Program for Harvard College reached a total of $58 million on Feb. 28, President Pusey announced yesterday. "We still hope and believe that there is an opportunity to finish the job by Commencement," Laurence O. Pratt '26, Director of Public Relations for the Program, asserted. "Certainly the national alumni phase of the Program will be completed successfully by that date."

The "national alumni phase" is the effort to secure $12 million in individual gifts of less than $10,000 from alumni. As of Feb. 28 it had raised 92.8 per cent of its quota, Pratt claimed.

Philip H. Theopold '25, National Alumni Chairman of the Program, says that 32 of the approximately 160 areas of the country have reported contributions from more than 75 per cent of their alumni.

In the first two months of 1959, a time of year ordinarily considered unproductive by fund-raisers, the Program has gained $3 million. Much of this amount, Pusey said, came from additional gifts by those who had already responded generously.

No gift of more than $500,000 was made during the period; the gain represented a response from large numbers of alumni in all parts of the country.

Several new projects at the College have already begun with funds previously given to the Program. All grades of the Faculty have received salary increases. Several gifts, notably an anonymous gift last year of $2 million from an alumnus who was himself a scholarship student, have helped to reinforce the financial aid resources for needy students.

Physical improvements such as offices for the new Department of Statistics and the renovation of Boylston Hall for a Modern Language Center have also resulted from the Program.