New Committee Report Urges NDEA Rejection

The University should "decline participation in the NDEA program pending repeal of the disclaimer affidavit requirement" and should "seek elimination of the oath provision," according to a report that will be presented to the Student Council tonight.

This report was prepared by a committee selected a week ago after a stormy meeting at which the Council severely criticized and finally rejected a first report on the NDEA submitted by another committee. Attacks on the original report centered on the "immature" writing and on certain passages construed as hostile to the principle of Federal aid to education.

David M. Balabanian '60, chairman of the new committee, said last night that its report will be brought to a vote after discussion at tonight's Council meeting.

The new report stresses the need to "rigorously define the grounds of our opposition, taking special care to distinguish our convictions from those of certain very temporary bedfellows."

Federal Aid Approved

Attacking the issue of Federal aid, it continues, "We find it necessary to affirm our belief in the desirability and, indeed, the absolute necessity of Federal aid to American higher education." The objectionable provisions in the NDEA, the report points out, are not "inevitable concomitants of Federal monies."

Both the oath and affidavit requirements, however, are "intrinsically objectionable," according to the committee. "A requirement of belief or conviction . . .," the report states, "must clearly conflict with the tradition of intellectual non-interference which has been the precious possession of American universities."

Outlining further the "tactical reasons" for both accepting and rejecting NDEA money, the report concludes that Harvard "is pre-eminently qualified to lead the fight" against the loyalty provisions and that it should decline funds under the Act until the affidavit is repealed.