E.R.P. at M.I.T.

A hand-picked group of 70 foreign students was hard at work in M.I.T. summer classes last week, largely because of an idea that came to a couple of ex-G.I.s in the Boston subway three years ago.

Earl Eames and Lloyd Haynes, M.I.T. seniors both, fell to talking that day in 1947 about World War II and the ruins they had seen in Europe. By the time they reached their Cambridge station, they had hit on their idea: bring topflight European technical students to M.I.T., give them advanced work in their specialties, then send them home to help reconstruct their countries.

But who would sponsor such a project? Having heard the plan, M.I.T. promised free tuition for any students they brought over. But all the rest Eames and Haynes would have to arrange themselves. They went to Washington, got the State Department's blessing, called at 22 foreign embassies and asked for students from each.

Then they went after money. They called on foundations and corporations, advertised in newspapers, even tried, without success, to get a crack at the $5,000 jackpot question on a Break the Bank quiz show. Gifts of $1 to $125 began to dribble in. By June of 1948, Eames and Haynes were set. Of the 22 nations invited to send students, all but Russia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary came through--in most cases adding the passage money, too.

That year they had 62 students, the next year 78. By last week the Foreign Student Summer Project seemed to be a solid M.I.T. institution. Among its alumni: a West German who is building Bavaria's first electronic computer, a Norwegian who has discovered a new method of making gelatin out of seaweed, a Finn who has become editor of Finland's leading architectural magazine.

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