Bundy Give Favorable Appraisal Of University Use of Federal Aid

Utilization of federal aid to the sciences at the University has been "strongly profitable," Dean Bundy stated yesterday. "We are usually able to give the government what it came for," he said, "and at the same time do what is appropriate to the University's aims."

A report drafted by a panel of educators including Bundy and issued last Sunday by President Eisenhower's Advisory Committee charged that governmental agencies and universities are responsible for '-an artificial and fundamentally wrong division between teaching and research." The main conclusion of the report stated, "Research, learning, and teaching are deeply connected processes which should be kept together wherever possible."

Bundy indicated that the University has constantly tried to avoid the separation of research and teaching. "We will refuse funds that further /this gap," Bundy declared, "although that is easier to say than do. We have always tried to create a laboratory environment in which teaching and research re-enforce each other."

Policies Avoid Separation

Several unique University policies may account for what Bundy says is an avoidance of the tendency to separate teaching and research: 1) Government grants are accepted only if the project is under the direction of a Faculty member. 2) Large governmental jobs are generally not taken. 3) Except in times of war, the University avoids engagement in secret governmental research and does not accept responsibility for the administration of security clearance.

Although federal aid to areas outside of science was called "beyond the report's mission," Bundy asserted, "The University must prevent the sacrifice of the social sciences and humanities when dealing in federal aid. In the main we have been successful in doing so."

The report also stated that perhaps the most important task for universities is to see that their standards of excellence and freedom are maintained in a period of growing connection with government.

University Can Choose

However, Bundy stated that, although any source of university income is potentially a source of control, Harvard need only accept--in all areas of science--the federal aid that it wants--without endangering its policies.

The report, in addition, recommended, "Both colleges and the federal government should give urgent attention to the quality of collegiate (undergraduate) instruction in the sciences."