College's Nigeria Plan May Fold; M.I.T. Panel Discusses Problems

Youthful enthusiasm is wonderful, but there will have to be considerable care in planning the Peace Corps if the project is not to boomerang, five educators agreed at an "International Week--1961" panel at M.I.T. last night.

While terming it "desperately necessary" that something new be added to our foreign aid programs, Arthur Smithies, chairman of the Economics Department, warned that the problems of the Corps must be carefully analyzed. In particular, the program must solve the problems of "Who goes?" and "What do you do when you get there?" he noted.

In answer to Smithies' second question, Max Millikan, director of the International Studies Center at M.I.T. and author of a study of the Corps for President Kennedy, defined four aims for the program.

The basic purpose, he asserted, is to fill the "man-power gap" of the under-developed countries. He viewed the Corps as complementary to present technical and capital assistance programs.

The goal of improving understanding of the United States abroad should be viewed as a legitimate but secondary aim, Millikan maintained.

Millikan also saw the Corps as valuable in building a reservoir of Americans with understanding of other cultures and in providing an outlet for the desire of American youth to "dedicate themselves to a constructive cause."

A third panel member, Dean Monro, outlined the University's program for training the seniors to be sent to Nigeria: an extra-curricular seminar on West African and Nigerian problems during the Spring Term; a more intensive cultural orientation program during the summer; and possible on-the-scene teaching training in Nigeria in August and September.

The other panel members, Ithiel de Sola Pool, professor of political science at M.I.T., and Donald J. Eberly, assistant director of the International Students Office, stressed the desirability of developing close relationships with people in other countries.