Graduates Encourage Individual Choices On NDEA Funds

University officials should seek a policy on Federal loyalty requirements that "disrupts no educational careers while seeking needed reforms," the executive committee of the Harvard-Radcliffe Graduate Student Council stated last night.

The Council suggested that the procedures "which have proved satisfactory" in administration of National Science Foundation fellowships--direct contact between applicant and government agency, with no university administration--might be utilized in other federal programs.

If Harvard withdraws from the N.D.E.A. program, the Council fears it will be forced to reject any program which requires the University to administer similar disclaimer affidavits. "A hasty decision to reject funds could destroy the educational plans of a large number of graduate students," the statement continued.

Although it opposed the loyalty provision on the grounds that it is ineffective and "insults students as a group," the Council stated that "it is clear that our moral decisions must be influenced by consideration of the practical problems."

"Moral principles involved have been habitually bruised and disfigured by practical considerations," declared the Council, and "it is difficult to draw any hard and fast lines on moral grounds."

Because "the same principle is involved," said the Council, "no distinction can be drawn between the N.D.E.A. and the N.S.F. Act, both of which require applicants for fellowships to file disclaimer affidavits."