The National Academy of Arts and Letters, the American equivalent of the French Academy of Arts and Sciences, honored three University professors in New York City last week.

John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, and Jose Luis Sert, Dean of the Graduate School of Design, were inducted into the Academy, which includes in its membership author John Hersey, poetess Marianne Moore, and Edward Hopkins, the artist. Edward Albee, playwright, was inducted with Galbraith and Sert at a luncheon.

The Academy chooses its members, Americans who have become known in some area of the arts or humanities, "for distinction and achievement."

At the same time William Alfred, professor of English, was given a tax-free grant of $2500 for his two recent plays, Hogan's Goat and Agememnon.

What will he do with the money? "I'm just going to salt it away with an eye on taxes for next year. I'm making so much money I'm going to owe the Government my eye teeth," Alfred said.