HARVARD HEAD SLAMS CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300090032-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 32
• Publication Date: July 21, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

3Approved For Releas/ %IA-RDP88-01315R(iD93?032 8
1 JULY 1978
INTELLIGENCE CHARTER HEARINGS:'
Harvard head slams CM
By JEFFREY WOLFF
Special to The Daily
Select Committee on Intelligence Activities yesterday,
Harvard University President Derek Bok asked
Congress to put a stop to Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) "operational activities" on college campuses
which include "covert recruiting."
Bok's request came as a result of CIA refusal to
abide by those provisions in the Harvard guidelines
concerning university relationships with intelligence
agencies.
BOK OFFERED the Select Committee several let-
ters from CIA Director Stanfield Turner which state
that the Agency cannot abide by Harvard's restrictions
on CIA covert recruiting and other operational ac-
tivities at the prestigious university.
.,,.The relationship between U.S. foreign intelligence
agencies and universities must be structured in ways
that protect the integrity of universities and the
academic profession and safeguard the freedom and
objectivity of scholarship," said Bok.
The Select Committee solicited Bok's testimony as
part of its hearings dealing with the Senate's proposed
intelligence charter (S. 2525) which seeks, for the first
time since the National Security Act of 1947; to define
and control the activities of U.S. intelligence agencies.
This was the time the Select Committee has invited
academics to testify on CIA campus activities.
operational activities of intelligence
agencies" refers to the publicized
policy by the CIA of encouraging
professors doing research abroad to
provide the CIA with sensitive infor-
mation. In addition, some professors
have had contracts, unknown to their
colleges or sometimes to the ad-
ministration, with the CIA In which
they used their academic cover to ob-
tain particular information desired by
tireintelligenceagencv:
THE' HARVARD president was
-highly critical of the CIA's attitude that
it did not have to abide. by Harvard's
rules. He argued,_that the CIA is har-
dly the appropriate arbiter to weigh
(national security)' needs against the
legitimate concerns of academic
freedom,"
Also giving testimony-was Morton
Baratz, former General Secretary of
the American-Association of University
Professors and now vice chancellor for
academic affairs at the University of
Maryland.
Baratz stressed the importance of
guidelines in giving each university the, J
chance to set its own rules. However, he
criticized the proposed charter for not
HARVARD AND several other universities adopted banning covert recruitment and also.
guidelines after recent revelations that the CIA has , recommended that "intelligence agen-
used professors to recruit and gather inforn'fhtion
about students attending American universities, It has
been revealed that this often entails a summary of the
student's political views, financial
situation and social habits. Records
were typically kept without the I
student's knowledge or consent.
These CIA files were often retained
by the agency whether or not the
student was approached with a job of-
fer. Foreign students are known to be
frequent subjects of CIA covert,
recruiting. And the information on the
student has often been used to pressure
the individual into spying for the CIA on
his countrymen both in the U.S. and at
home.
SET OF guidelines for relations
between the University of MiicT>gan and
U.S. int igence agencies will be
pprroooseeddatthe September faculty
enatS a Assembl meeting. '
'Bok supported the prohibition of such
covert recruitment in the Harvard
guidelines by citing'the need for "trust
and candor to promote the free and
open exchange of ideas and information
essential to inquiry and learning."
The prohibition on "participation and
cies be prohibited from using as sour-
ces of operational assistance in foreign
countries, all academics travelling
abroad."
He supported this complete ban by
arguing the need to remove any reason
for suspicion among foreign gover-
nments that an American professor is
motivated by reason other than his
purely professional interest.
THE THIRD witness, Richard
Abrams, testifying in his capacity as
chairman of the Statewide Committee
on Academic Freedom for the Univer-
sity of California, supported the other
witnesses advocating an end to covert
relationships.
But. Abrams, whose committee has
recently completed a study of relations
between California and U.S. intelligen-
ce agencies, suggested the CIA
cultivate academic relationships
"freely open basis."
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000300090032-8