URA-ERDA Sign Third Contract
The third contract between Universities Research Association Inc. (URA) and the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), representing the United States federal government, was signed at Fermilab on June 30. Under the contract, URA will operate and maintain the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for ERDA for another 5 1/2 year period, to December 31, 1981.
Signing for URA was Norman Ramsey, president of the corporation. Robert H. Bauer, manager of the Chicago Operations Office, represented ERDA, and Robert K. Buchanan, Jr., URA secretary, certified the contract.
The first contract between URA and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (ERDA's predecessor) was signed January 5, 1967. It followed the meeting of 34 presidents of major universities in June of 1965 at which URA was formed as a corporation to provide a broad national basis for the management of the accelerator facility then under consideration by the Congress. After Illinois was chosen as the site for the Laboratory late in 1966, URA was asked by the AEC to direct the design and planning of the new institution. A second contract was signed in April of 1972.
The leadership provided by URA, representing the leading scientific institutions of the United States, has been an important factor in the nine years of successful construction and operation of Fermilab.
"We are looking forward to the next years under the new contract," Dr. Ramsey commented after the signing, "and we hope and expect that it will be an exciting time scientifically."
URA membership now includes 53 universities, 52 in the United States, one in Canada. (See diagram below.) The University of Hawaii became the newest member-institution, elected in February, 1976.
The affairs of the URA corporation are led by a Council of Presidents consisting of the president of each member-institution. John S. Toll, President, State University of New York at Stony Brook, is chairman of the Council; Dale Corson of Cornell University is vice-chairman. The Council of Presidents meets annually; its next meeting will be at Fermilab in February, 1977, the first here since completion of the Laboratory.
The Council of Presidents delegates management decisions to the URA Board of Trustees. Fifteen of the 21 Board members are selected on a regional basis, representing neighboring geographical areas of URA membership; six of the Board members are elected at large. The composition of the Board continually reflects a wide variety of interests and experience.
URA's administrative staff has its headquarters at 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Administrative responsibilities are directed by Dr. Norman Ramsey, professor of physics at Harvard University, and president of URA. The staff also includes Bradley F. Bennett, vice president of URA; Robert K. Buchanan, Jr., secretary of URA; Robert A. Williams, treasurer/controller of URA; and Robert R. Wilson, Director of Fermilab.
URA's administrative staff members are frequent visitors to Fermilab, and they maintain close contacts with Fermilab staff and with ERDA representatives.
ERDA is represented at Fermilab by its Batavia Area Office, with headquarters on the 6th floor east of the Central Laboratory. Donald L. Bray is Manager of the Batavia Area Office; Claude W. Dickens is Assistant Manager. The Batavia Area Office is under the jurisdiction of ERDA's Chicago Operations Office, with offices at Argonne National Laboratory. ERDA and the former AEC have maintained staff alongside the Fermilab staff since 1967. The local office at Fermilab provides valuable liaison with other ERDA offices.
