New Committee Faces Engelhard Issue

An informal student-faculty committee at the Kennedy School of Government plans to recommend before March 23 a possible resolution to the controversy over the naming of the Engelhard Public Affairs Library and guidelines for accepting gifts and honoring donors.

The committee, composed of six student volunteers and three faculty members, was the suggestion of Thomas C. Schelling, Littauer Professor of Political Economy. The group was formed this month to study both the Engelhard issue and broader policies, such as accepting gifts, Rebecca A. Lee, a student spokesman for the committee said Friday. Schelling is a member of the committee.

Many students and some faculty members have protested naming the Kennedy School library after Charles W. Engelhard, an American mining magnate who earned his fortune in South Africa.

A Student Association steering committee on the library controversy and the K-School black student's caucus recently approved Schelling's proposal to form a committee.

The committee will not direct K-School policies but will try to suggest creative methods of handling the Engelhard issue and other problems, Lee said. She added that K-School officials are not prepared to deal with other controversies. "If another problem came, it would hit them in the face," she said.

Graham T. Allison Jr. '62, dean of the K-School, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The committee will also discuss, among other questions, "Harvard's role in perpetuating the white male elite--a much broader issue than the Engelhard Library," Lee said. She added she believes the K-School "ought to have standards above and beyond those of Harvard University."