Joint Fund Effort

Dartmouth College last month joined forces with 22 other independent colleges in New England to form The New England Colleges Fund, Inc., a regional organization which will jointly seek financial support from business and industry.

A number of such cooperative agencies have been set up in the various states, but this is the first regional group of independent colleges to be formed for fund-raising purposes. Formal incorporation of The New England Colleges Fund was preceded by several months of discussions and negotiations in which Dartmouth took a leading part.

James P. Baxter 3rd, president of Williams College, is serving as president of the new Fund. John F. Meek '33, Vice President and Treasurer of Dartmouth, is treasurer of the organization, and Ross Gamble, executive secretary of the College's Committee on Bequests, is assistant secretary-treasurer.

Only privately supported colleges located in the six New England states and voted primarily to instruction in the liberal arts were eligible to qualify as original participants in The New England Colleges Fund. The granting in 1952 of a minimum of 100 liberal arts degrees to students completing the four-year undergraduate course was a further qualification for membership. The by-laws provide for the admission of additional members who qualify.

In addition to Dartmouth, the participating institutions include Amherst, Bates, Boston College, Brown, Clark, Colby, Connecticut College, Emmanuel, Fairfield University, Holy Cross, Middlebury, Providence, Radcliffe, Regis, St. Anselm's, St. Michael's, Smith, Tufts, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Wheaton and Williams.

The funds raised by the new organization will be distributed among the 23 colleges one-half equally and the other half on the basis of the number of liberal arts degrees granted by each institution annually. The work of The New England Colleges Fund will supplement and not replace the regular fund-raising efforts of the individual colleges

In making the formal announcement of the incorporation of the new. Fund, President Baxter of Williams declared that business and industrial leaders all over the country realize that American companies have a large stake in independent, non taxsupported institutions like the New England group. "For one thing," he said, "business organizations recruit many of their future leaders from such colleges. Of the scientists in the country an extraordinarily high proportion received their first degrees in liberal arts colleges. The institutions constitute an essential and irreplaceable part of the American system of higher education. Their position is so critical in these days of inflation and mounting costs that they deserve the help from the widest possible range of donors. Their continued existence will depend in a considerable degree on the extent to which decorporations are willing to contribute to funds such as this one."