Ready to Say No

Federal research money is flowing into U.S. universities and university-related laboratories at the rate of about $1 billion a year--roughly one-quarter of their total income. One beneficial result is the "new life" stirring in university laboratories, says Harvard's President Nathan M. Pusey in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin. What worries Pusey (and other educators) is the danger of federal interference. Government agencies, warns Harvard's chief, show "an increasing desire to say how things are to be done in laboratories, and who may or may not appear in them."

A prickly instance is the "disclaimer affidavit"--a negative loyalty oath--that students must sign to get federal loans under the National Defense Education Act. Worse is the 15% ceiling on "indirect costs" incurred by universities conducting research under Government grants. In doing research for the National Institutes of Health, says Pusey, Harvard's indirect costs are about 28.5% of direct costs. Last year it spent an extra $1,000,000 out of its own pocket. Harvard and other universities are thus being forced to underwrite federal research.

Is the answer more federal money? Says Pusey: "We at Harvard do not want the Federal Government to take over financial responsibility for us. Far from it! Rather we are working as hard as we can to maintain our financial independence as the basic requirement for maintaining any independence at all."

Harvard by no means wants to quit working for the Government, but, says Pusey. "we move into the relationship, on guard and wary, filled with suspicion, ready to be helpful when we can, but at the same time eager to concede nothing to our more powerful partner. We fear that at some future time our new associate may begin to make demands upon us inconsistent with the true character of an independent university. When that time comes--perhaps we should anticipate, when those repeated times come--we wish to be able, and we firmly intend, to say no."

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