Columbia. List of 26 strong candidates applying for fellowships or scholarships, 1954

The following transcribed memo from 1954 was written to the President of Columbia University by Carter Goodrich. It appears to have been sent as evidence of what Goodrich had deemed “the fellowship problem”, i.e. “the inadequacy of our provisions for graduate aid”  resulting in no graduate applicants from the top U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities (excluding Columbia) except for one from Princeton and another from Bryn Mawr. The strongest applicants were “largely foreigners or refugees”. A list of the twenty-six top applicants was provided, with Peter Bain Kenen perhaps the one who was to cast the longest shadow going forward (and who incidentally went to Harvard and not Columbia for his graduate work). Leon Smolinski did obtain his Ph.D. in economics at Columbia and went on to teach at Boston College for thirty years. (A Boston College obituary for Smolinski).

________________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York

[New York 27, N.Y.]
Faculty of Political Science

March 8, 1954

President Grayson Kirk
Low Memorial Library

Dear Grayson:

I am taking the liberty of sending you this note to continue our chance conversation of the other day on the fellowship problem.

After looking over the nearly eighty applications for fellowships or scholarships in Economics, we realized that there was not a single applicant from Swarthmore, Haverford, Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Yale, Stanford, McGill, Toronto, Smith, Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, or from the undergraduate schools of Harvard or the Universities of California and Chicago. There is one from Princeton and one (French by nationality) from Bryn Mawr.

There are, nevertheless, a number of strong candidates, but largely foreigners or refugees. I am enclosing a copy of a list which I have submitted to the Executive Officer of the Department indicating the origins of the leading twenty-six candidates.

The failure to attract applicants from the institutions from which we might expect the best American and Canadian training appears to me a very serious matter. Part, at least, of the cause must lie in the inadequacy of our provisions for graduate aid.

Sincerely yours,
[signed: “Carter”]
Carter Goodrich

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

	NAME	PLACE OF BIRTH	COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
1.	Joseph Raymond Barse	Chicago, Illinois	Northwestern University Columbia University
2.	Donald Van Twisk Bear	New York City	Princeton University
3.	Robert Classon	New York City	Brooklyn College
4.	Joan E. Belenken	Brooklyn, N.Y.	Barnard College Cornell University
5.	Narciso Asperin Ferrer	Manila	Ateneo de Manila (Law School and Graduate School)
6.	William Smith Gemmell	Schenectady, N.Y.	Union College
7.	Michele Guerard	Le Havre, France	Lycee de Seures, Lycee de Fontaine, Bryn Mawr College
8.	Iran Banu Mohamed Ali Hassani	Hyderabad Deccan, India	Osmania University (Hyderabad Deccan, India) Syracuse University
9.	Peter Bain Kenen	Cleveland, Ohio	Columbia College
10.	Jerzy Feliks Karcz	Grudziadz, Poland	Batory Liceum, Warsaw, Poland Alliance College Kent State University Columbia University
11.	Gregor Lazarcik	Horna-Streda, Czechoslovakia	State College of Kosice (Czechoslovakia) Agricultural University (Brno, Czech.) School of Social Studies (Paris, France) Institute of International Studies (Paris, France) Faculty of Law, University of Paris (France) University Centre for European Studies (Strasbourg, France)
12.	Michael Ernst Levy	Mainz, Germany	Hebrew University (Jerusalem)
13.	Ira South Lowry	Laredo, Texas	University of Texas
14.	Samir Anis Makdisi	Beirut, Lebanon	American University of Beirut
15.	Yaroslav Nowak	Kieve, Russia	J. W. Goethe University (Frankfurt, Germany) Columbia University
16.	Algimantes Petrenas	Kaunas, Lithuania	Hamburg University (Hamburg, Germany) Baltic University (Hamburg, Germany) Columbia University
17.	Guy A. Schick	Aurora, Illinois	Purdue University
18.	Leon Smolinski	Kalisz, Poland	School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland University of Freiburg (Germany) University of Cincinnati Columbia University
19.	Werner Alfred Stange	Berlin, Germany	University of Kiel (Kiel, Germany) University of Bonn (Bonn, Germany) University of Maryland
20.	Koji Taira	Miyako, Ryukyus (near Okinawa)	University of New Mexico University of Wisconsin
21.	Jaskaran Singh Teja	Jhingran, Punjab, India	Agricultural College (Punjab, India) University of California Harvard University
22.	Marcel Tenenbaum	Paris, France	Queens College (Flushing, N.Y.)
23.	Nestor Eugenius Terleckyj	Boryslaw, Ukraine	University of Erlangen (Erlangen, Germany) Seton Hall University Columbia University
24.	John Jacob Vogel	Irvington, N.J.	Middlebury College Columbia University
25.	Ludwig Anton Wagner	Vienna, Austria	University of Vienna (Austria) Columbia University
26.	Theodore Raymond Wilson	Baltimore, Md.	Johns Hopkins University University of Paris (France)

 

Source: Columbia University Archives, Central Files 1890-, Box 406, Folder “Goodrich, Carter 9/1953-5/1959”.

Image Source: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University from the Tichnor Brothers Collection, New York Postcards, at the Boston Public Library, Print Department.