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Show / *> THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 November 25, 1975 Dear Former Member of the Institute: The Board of Trustees of The Institute for Advanced Study has undertaken a review of the structure and functions of the Institute in connection with the end of the term of service of the present Director and the need to choose a new one. A Review Committee has been appointed to study the activities of the Institute in the light of its historical purposes, its position in a changing world of research and scholarship, and its financial prospects, and to make recommendations to the Board about future policy. Five of the Institute's Trustees have been appointed to this Review Committee. They have been joined by two distinguished outside academics and two members of the Institute's Faculty. Their names and affiliations are indicated on the attached list, for your general information. The members of the Review Committee consider it essential to their deliberations to understand all aspects of the Institute's activities as fully as possible. We feel we can learn a great deal from people with direct knowledge of the Institute. Accordingly, we have decided to ask the Institute's visitors over the years to tell us about their experiences at the Institute and their sense of its place in the larger academic community. We hope you will be willing to help us by answering the enclosed questionnaire. It is obviously impossible to write directly to all former Members of the Institute, who now number over 2,000, and it is probably impossible to devise a single set of questions that will apply equally well to the experiences of a diverse group of scholars and scientists. The questionnaire is designed to elicit specific information about each Member's experience; comments on various aspects of the Institute's activities are invited. We hope you will answer the questions candidly. Your frank responses, which will of course remain confidential, will enable the Review Committee to address itself to the policy questions now facing the Institute with a greater knowledge of the actual functioning of the Institute and of its importance to Visiting Members than would otherwise be possible. Please feel free to mention any aspect of your experience not brought up directly in the questionnaire or to make a more extensive comment on the Institute's purposes and organization. Your response will be most helpful to us if you will answer the questionnaire as soon as possible, in any case by December 31. An envelope is enclosed for its return. Thank you for your help in this important undertaking. Sincerely, Martin E. Segal Chairman - Review Committee MES:bz |