University Refuses Sanction For Secret Research Work

The University yesterday reaffirmed its belief that secret government research by faculty members would undermine its contribution to the advancement of knowledge.

Dean Bundy told a Senate subcommittee in Washington that the essential freedom of a university "can be contaminated easily" by classified research contracts. It was the first statement of policy on secret government work since 1946.

Bundy asserted that the contribution to the national security by faculty members through free and open studies is greater than by secret investigation. "It has been our historic policy to emphasize the importance to the nation of open research in basic subjects," he said.

The mission of a university is the advancement of truth by teaching and research, Bundy said, and its "must be guided by a steady respect for scholarly excellence and total freedom of inquiry. This means that a university will make its appointments without regard to some of the things with which a security officer must naturally be concerned."

He told the subcommittee on reorganization of the Committee on Government Operations that security standards of the University are not the same as those which apply to classified work. "We have a burning concern for individual excellence," Bundy said.

Knowledge, Not Politics

In the University's search for men of academic excellence, "we do not worry much about their politics, or their manners, or their team spirit," he said. "The moral standards of great scholarship are stern, but they include a deep regard for the right of a colleague to his own honest convictions and his own choice of action."

"So it is natural," he added, "that a great university should have highly honored members who would never fit into the secret places of government."

If a university is to engage in secret work, Bundy said, some authority must choose between its faculty members. The university itself cannot be that authority lest it be driven to differentiate in a "divisive and invidious fashion." When the government places part of the institution under surveillance, its standards are not akin to those of the faculty, he said.