Thai-Time Tie Sends Gill to Plan University

Richard T. Gill '48, Master of Leverett House, is in Thailand on a 10-day trip to consult with Thai authorities on the founding of a new university.

The trip is jointly paid for by James A. Linen, president of Time, Inc. and the Thai government.

Accompanying Gill are John Sawyer, president of Williams College and Ashley Campbell '40, dean of the engineering school at Tufts University.

A Time, Inc. representative said yesterday that Linen, a friend of Thai foreign minister Thanat Khoman, conceived of the plan to send the three American educators to Thailand during Thanat's visit to America last May.

Thanat is in charge of a cabinet committee responsible for the development of southern Thailand. The area, which contains between three and four million people, has no higher education facilities.

The Thai government plans construction of a multi-campus university in the south during the next 12 years. The small town of Tattani is to be the site of the first part of the university, a technical school.

Gill, Sawyer, and Campbell will suggest ways in which American methods of instruction, administration, and curriculum planning can be adopted to conditions in Thailand. They will return to the U.S. Feb. 7.