Clergy Supports Research Restrictions

Forty-two Ann Arbor clergymen have sent a letter to University of Michigan President Robben Fleming endorsing new restrictions on classified government research. The new restrictions would not allow the University to "enter into or renew federal contracts or grants that limit only publication of the results of research." Exceptions would be made only for proposals which are "likely to contribute to the advancement of knowledge as to justify infringement on the freedom to publish openly." Judgements will be made by a 12 member committee, including two persons performing classified research and two persons "philosophically opposed" to such research. Seven votes would be needed for approval of any project. The clergymen's letter endorsed the proposal in hopes "to restore a portion of honesty and integrity to the University and to its relations with the people of Michigan." The letter says in part. "We acknowledge that technological breakthroughs which have wide human and constructive applications have been derived from research originally taken for military purposes. We do not believe that the quest of knowledge should cease. We do not insist that work at the University of Michigan on infrared, seismic and accoustic sensing, for example, be stopped. We do urge an end to the application of these technologies, and all others, to the production of death and suffering and fear. Secrets, large and small, have become endemic to American institutions. It has taken many years for example, to learn the extent to which the United States has applied technologies developed at the University of Michigan to the destruction of human beings and human settlements in Laos and Cambodia." (Note: the infrared tracking device mentioned, developed at the University of Michigan, was used by the CIA to track down and murder brother Che Guevera in Bolivia.) The new policy was adopted Oct. 18 by the Senate Assembly and accepted at a Nov. 22 meeting of the full faculty Senate. It only needs to be approved now by the U of M Regents. End All Classified Research Now. RPP