UNIVERSITY CAMPUS STILL SCENE OF CIA'S ACTIVITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030139-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 139
• Publication Date: February 13, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030139-4
Jniversity
scene
D f CIA's
Ac iv16
ies.
3y Carla Wheeler
,opyright 1981
Ainnesola Daily
hespite the decline of 1970s radical-
sm, the Central Intelligence Agency
C IAi remains active on college cam-
,uses. "rhe University of Minnesota is
ro exception.
CIA involvement on campus has in-
luded possible attempts to recruit
tudents to spy on each other, CIA-
lmrled research experiments, and
lebriefing of facultyreturning from
!rsrts overseas.
CIA questioning of University proles-
orswho have visited the'Soviet
_.nion or other socialist nations is a
-ommon occurrence; according to a
.Jniversity professor who asked not to
se named.
)ebrief ing is one means the CIA uses .
o get information about a country,
he professor said, and it is perfectly
legal. I
;onalhan Rosner, a physics teacher, ?
was questioned by a CIA agent in
1970. Rosner remembers the agents'
visit clearly. -
rhe man Came into the office and
:los-'d the door. Rosnersaid. He was
'hush hush" about the visit, he
added
The CIA agent then handed Rosner a
list of technical questions to answer.'
The questions concerned Soviet labo-
ratories Rosner had visited on his trip..
"I didn't notice a lot of things they
asked about;" Rosner said. Rosner re-
fused to specify what the CIA wanted.
to know. That would be,"a breach of,
confidence," he said.
MINNESOTA DAILY
13 February 1981
Five minutes after the agent's arrival,
Rosner said he became worried about
talking with the CIA because he had
told some of his colleagues in the de-'
partment about the agent's upcoming
visit, and somehow the word leaked
out to the students. The agent had
told Rosner that telling friends about
the CIA's visit "is not to your advan-
tage.
"I got a little anxious at that point,"-
Rosner said. ..'r,
.Rosner said he told the agent-hew-as-:'
anhoyed by the secrecy surrounding -
the visit, but was told the Soviets
question their scholars too. The agent
accused the Soviets of many unethi.
cal practices, Rosner said. "He said
things like 'they. (Soviets) rape our
Paulu rethunec roree'--month
teaching engagement in the Soviet
Union last Daccmber, and a CiA
a~;rnt called him again. "I refused to
talk to them," Paulu said.'
CIA agents usually contact depart-
ment chairpersons and ask who has
been abroad recently and if the chair-
person thinks the professor will talk
to the CIA, said Erwin Marquit, asso-
ciate professor of physics, who ac-
companied Rosner to the Soviet
Union in 1970.
"They're (chairpersons) acting as
fingermen" for the CIA, Marquit
said. The chairpersons "don't want to
be in a-position of not cooperating
with government agencies," he said.
A record of non-cooperation could
hurt their careers, Marquit added.
. Rosnersaid the CIA has?not con-
tacted him since that day in 1970,
"Legitimate data gathering by the CIA
is understandable, but not all-this se--
crecy nonsense," Rosner said: This
type of activity is "not good for free '
conferences," he said.
Talking with the CIA about an over-
seas trip hurts a scholar's contacts
with colleagues in other nations and;
affects other academics, said Burton
Paulu, retired professor and director'..
of Media Resources at the University.
CIA contact "lowers the credibility of
reporters, researchers, and teachers,"
said Paulu, who has been questioned .
by the CIA several times after trips
abroad. Academics and reporters
"have to be above suspicion," he . _
said. Providing the CIA with informa-
tion "affects the objectivity of schol-
ars of the media," he said.
Paulu agreed to talk to the CIA in ?
1958 after a visit to the Soviet Union.
The CIA agents asked about "my gen-
eral impressions of the trip," Paulu
said.
In 1965 agents phoned Paulu after an-
other visit to Eastern Europe. "I
would not talk to them," he said. ?
Paulu said he told the agent to read a
book he was about to publish.
Marquit and several other University
professors wrote an opinion article in
the Minnesota Daily in early 1971
calling for an "end to University in-
volvement in intelligence activity."
"The administration and regents must
make it clear to the federal govern-
ment that the use of University by in-
telligence agencies is harmful to the
national interest and can only inter-
fere with the University fulfilling its
proper role," the opinion piece said.
"Graduate students and faculty are
scared of having their views known,"
Marquit said. "This is a very evil situ-
ation."
"I don't think University should offi-
cially cooperate with the intelligence
cocnmunity,' said University Presi-
dent C. Peter Magrath in an interview
with the Daily on Wednesday.
"I believe that much of that informa-
tion that probably comes from dis-
cussions of-that kind (debrief ings) are
really pretty innocuous kinds of basic
information," Magrath said. "I think
that it is very damaging, potentially,
to University researchers if they are
believed to be involved in some way,
not so much with spying, but with
things related to the intelligence com-
.munity."
But people can't be prevented from
talking to somebody about their re-
search, Magrath said. "I sincerely be-
lieve it's, a tough area to regulate," he
said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030139-4