John Brademas '49, president of New York University (N Y U), at his installation ceremony this week, expressed alarm that the Reagan administration's reduction in federal funds for student loan programs and university-based research in science would have far-reaching negative social consequences.

Brademas, a Democratic congressman from Indiana for 22 years, argued that "reductions in federal aid to students would threaten not only to bar hundreds of thousands of young people seeking a college education" but would also threaten the administration's goals.

"Whatever your view on administration policy, there can be no doubt that achieving both a stronger defense and stronger economy will require university educated men and women--the people who would be most seriously affected by the cutbacks," Brademas, who became the university's 13th president, said yesterday. N Y U is the largest private university in the nation, with an enrollment of 44,017.

At the installation ceremony, Brademas awarded President Bok an honorary plaque to commemorate his leadership of "my own alma mater to which I owe much."

Brademas, who served as majority whip of the House until his defeat last November, graduated magna cum laude in government from Harvard.