Simple dedication ceremonies this afternoon will formally open the Graduate Center on Jarvis Field and bring to a conclusion the year campaign to provide Cambridge graduate students with adequate housing of their own.

The center includes eight new halls -- seven dormitories and the Harkness Commons building--and other old dormitories, Walter Hastings, Perkins, Conant, and Divinity.

With the opening of the center, a new era begins for the graduate schools in Cambridge. For the first time these schools have a community of their own -- with great deal of dormitory space and a social center.

But to the University, it is more than that. At the Graduate Cdenter, specialists from six schools are "intermingling and learning from each other." In that respect the graduate facilities in Cambridge surpass the Medical and Business School plants in Boston, which are more elaborate but somewhat isolated.

"Dream Come True"

The officials of the Law School and the other graduate schools in Cambridge are unrestrainedly enthusiastic. To all of them, the Graduate Center seems like a "dream come true." It is the climax of many years of hoping and hard work.

Interest in a large-scale graduate dormitory program has existed for decades, but with the start of the undergraduate House system in 1930 the time appeared not too distant when new dormitory facilities would be added to Walter Hastings, Conant, Divinity, and Perkins Halls -- all of which were built before 1900.

Two men, Dean Griswold of the Law School and Provost Buck representing the five other Cambridge graduate schools, are mainly responsible for converting this idea into a reality. They joined forces and persuaded the Corporation not only to endorse the idea but also to contribute the land for the project and $1,000,000 of University money, which in the end represented about one third of the project's building costs.

"Community of Scholars"

The idea to turn the University's "community of graduate scholars" into a physical reality -- to get large numbers of graduate students living and eating together on University property -- never gained much support while large numbers of undergraduates were living in rooming houses instead of Harvard dormitories.

As far as physical facilities are concerned, the College has always tended to have a more complete plant than the graduate schools.

The Law School, which of all the Cambridge graduate schools could get the most support from its alumni for building new dormitories, had other interests in the 1920's. The major physical accomplishment of Dean Pound's administration was the completion of the last section of Langdell Hall in 1929.

Once the seven undergraduate Houses were completed in the early 1930's, officials praised them for putting into practice President Lowell's principle of "breakfast table education." At Harvard, the officials reasoned, students learn not only from their classes but also from informal discussions with friends and professors.

Little Progress Made

In his first address as president, Conant spoke of the need for a graduate social center. Little progress was made during the thirties as the University concentrated on such projects as National Scholarships, University Professorships, and the various adult fellowship programs, like the Nieman Fellows fund.

In 1942 Buck's attention was focused on the problem. Interest began to grown in a Graduate Center as possible post-war project.