Divinity Fund Must Get $675,000 Before Dec. 29

Divinity School officials expressed confidence last night that they will raise $675,000 within the next three months in order to retain the $250,000 contingent bequest of the late Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont.

The Lamont gift was donated on the condition the campaign reach the four million dollar mark before Dec. 29, 1955. In the event the money is not raised before the deadline the amount will be given to the Union Theological Seminary.

Executive Secretary to the Drive, Gordon Huggins '29, said yesterday that "it will probably take just another year to reach the campaign's goal of six million dollars once the Lamont bequest is obtained."

Corporation to Contribute

The endowment drive will still need an additional $1,500,000 since the Corporation has already pledged to contribute the final half million dollars necessary in the Drive.

The School's new expansion program, already in effect, however, this term boosted the student enrollment to 218, compared to last year's total of 145 and the 1952 figure of 103.

Dean Douglas Horton said that he now wants to aim for a faculty of 30 rather than the 15 to 25-man staff the School's investigating committee recommended at the beginning of the endowment Drive. The School currently has a faculty of 25, including six new appointments.

Huggins added yesterday that plans to erect new Divinity buildings will not be discussed until after the Drive is completed, unless a donor designates that his gift is to be used for that purpose.

Over $200,000 was donated towards the drive during the past summer, including an anonymous contribution of $160,000.