Rockefeller Foundation Sets Academic Freedom Position

Twice within the last year, the Rockefeller Foundation has re-defined its position on academic freedom. Leaders of the group made their statements in reply to attacks by Representative Eugene E. Cox, a Georgia Democraft. On April 4, 1952, Cox asserted that educational organizations were using their wealth to promote "subversive" activities.

On September 9, 1952, Chester I. Barnard, retiring president of the Foundation, admitted that security restrictions in some research areas are an "unavoidable evil." He then defined academic freedom as the "Freedom to inquire, to observe, to theorize, to exchange ideas and experiences, to criticize."

On March 6, Dean Rusk, the newly appointed president of the Foundation, re-asserted the group's position. He deplored the "serious assault upon intellectual freedom" facing higher education.