At one point there was considerable faculty initiative for building a center for international studies. The group, including Robert R. Bowie, then director of the CFIA, was awarded $2.5 million by the Ford Foundation in the early sixties for a Center of International and Regional Studies. The plan included the East Asian Center, the Russian Research Center, and the Middle Eastern Center, as well as the CFIA, in a new building next to Littauer. But the whole project was left up in the air when the administration decided to build the Science Center on that site.

In late 1966, President Pusey decided to use Harvard's portion of the newly proposed Kennedy Library complex to house the international studies center. "Our urgent present need," he wrote at the time, "is a new building large enough to adequately house international and regional activities and to enhance their inter-communication.

In addition to the regional study centers, he proposed including the international research programs of the Economics and Government Departments and the Kennedy School of Government. As late as 1970-71, during the final fund drive for the facility at the Kennedy Library site, the building was described to donors as an "international studies building."

The $3.3 million netted from these drives and the $2.5 million from Ford are now sitting in the coffers, waiting to be used to help cover the $10 million cost of Harvard's building. Nevertheless, the $5.8 million raised specifically for an international studies center will not be used for that purpose.

Of the four original research centers, only the CFIA will be located on the Kennedy Library site. Lack of space in the planned building due to cutbacks in the building's scale and the decisions of some key regional research centers to stay out of the facility have radically altered the nature of the proposed facility.

The administration did not ask the Middle Eastern Center located at 1737 Cambridge St., to be part of the Kennedy site. The Center's head, Nur Yalman, expects the group to move into the vacated CFIA building or build its own center.

Adam B. Ulam, director of the Russian Research Center, also located at 1737 Cambridge St., told administrators he prefers the group's present location to the Kennedy site. "We have our own library and we're comfortable. It's old, hard to clean and the dusts gets in, but I don't like sterile antiseptic places anyway."

Robert Vernon, director of the CFIA, the one international group that is still included by the administration for the proposed river facility, says that the CFIA has been responsive to the commands of the University to move from its present Divinity Ave. location. However, he also says the most important interaction for the CFIA comes with the West European and Japanese faculty.

And it appears neither of these groups will be housed in the Kennedy complex. Western European Studies, located in its own building near the Divinity School, has voted a resolution not to move unless it can have the same facilities that it has now--an unlikely prospect in light of the distinct, secluded atmosphere of the present building. While cautioning that it is too early for a final decision, Stanley Hoffman appears skeptical about the new building: "We met with Pei and told him we did not want a Pentagon. If by some miracle he does come through, then we would move."

The other group important to the CFIA includes the Japanese scholars. Yet the East Asian Center will not be moving, electing to remain with the Y'en Ching Library on Divinity Ave. In addition, the proposed Japanese Institute will someday be located near the Y'en Ching, according to University officials. In short, the CFIA would be at the opposite end of the campus from its two most vital "research allies."

The academic building on the Kennedy complex will not be a center for international studies, though it will centralize the Economic and Government Departments substantially, leaving out only professors tied to regional centers.

But even with this centralization advantage, neither the economic nor government head shows any eagerness about moving.

Professor James S. Duesenberry, chairman of the Economics Department, admits the department is not very happy with its present situation, where the economics faculty is spread throughout the University. But he says if he were faced with the decision of whether to retain the present situation or go to the river site, he would personally opt for staying.

"I'm most afraid of getting into a tightly planned situation which makes a set of assumptions about space, and leaves no room for flexibility or overflow. We would not be getting as much of the kind of space we want," Duesenberry said last week.

"So far I have taken a mildly muttering stance--we have displayed a non-enthusiasm. It might be possible that the Economics Department could stay out of this, but it seems we must go with the Kennedy School of Government," he said.