Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-12
Howard 10 Expand
Staff and Plant With.
Big Federal Grant
BY Harry Bocos

BY Harry Bocos
Howard University got a big
break from Congress this year. :.
After two seasons Of lean APP
preparations, the university was
given SGT million for salaries
and operating expenses. an In
crease Of $650.000 over last year.
In addition, the lawmakers
voted SIS million more to push
the schools big building program.
In both appropriations, Con-
gress considerably exceeded the
administrations budget requests.
% More Teachers.
The new money for salaries
means that the university can
hire % more teachers, bringing
the faculty strength to 3l5. The
posts they will fill are vacancies
which developed n the last two
years. when money for salaries
was cut.
Seventeen of the teachers win
go to the College of Liberal Arts.
the rest to the other nine colleges
and schools.
The biggest item in the build
ing appropriations Is $44 million
for a clinical building for
the Medical School. The build
ing will stand on the site Of an
85-year-old structure at Fifth
and w streets NV, due to be
vacated soon by the Pharmacy
and Dentistry Schools, which
are moving to new quarters.
New Dentist Building.
The 500 million dentistry
building will open in February.
It will be equipped with 1876 OPP
Grating chairs, for student dem
fists. The pharmacy building
will be ready next September.
Other projects starting this
year are: Campus power substa-
tion-enabling the university to
use commercial electric power
rather than revamp its old gen.
Grating plant-and a new adj
ministration building, a Law
School building and a green
house for the biology depart
ment.
Enrolment at the university
has been dropping. steadily from
it's postwar peak of 1000 in 1913.
This year, however, officials ex-
pect registration to stay close
to last years 3,898 students.
Two new major programs are
being instituted. The Philip
Murray Memorial Foundation
has given $4,000 to establish a
Philip Murray chair of labor
relations. The grant will finance
the chair for three years. AM
nouncement has not yet been
made as to who will occupy the
new poSltlon.
$4,000 Ford Grant.
A grant Of $4,000 from the
Ford Foundation will be used
to extend the program OF African
studies at the university. The
bulk Of the money, to be spread
over three years, will go toward
student scholarships and fellow
ships. In the third year, one
student will get a $500 fellow
ship for travel and research in
Africa.
Included in the program are
courses in human geography,
races and cultures. the impact Of
Western civilization on Africa
and the Negro in the modern
| world.
| Registration will start Wednes-
day. Glasses will begin the next
day in the law school, September
20 in medicine and dentistry and
September % in the other
schools.
Howard does not expect to see
any immediate changes as q re-
suit Of Indignation in the Dis
trict's public schools or area uni
versities. The majority Of its
students come from other States.
If the time comes, however,
when all colleges and univer-
stiles admit white and colored
students without distinction,
Howard will have to compete on
equal terms with the rest of the
schools. Officials aren't saying so
out loud. but their aim is to
build the university up to the
point where such q prospect can
be faced with confidence.