Dean Watson and the FBI

Dean Watson appeared to take a more sensible position in statements he made last week concerning the relationship between his office and FBI agents investigating the political activities of Harvard students. He asserted that all University action should be taken "with a view towards helping and protecting students, not helping the FBI."

But, although Watson's words suggest that he has adopted the correct stance, his actions indicate otherwise:

* He meets regularly with agent James T. Sullivan '36 to discuss student matters. "He'll never ask anything confidential. He's never been indiscreet with me," Watson says.

* His office gives agents "public" information about students which could be obtained more properly from the University's information services.

* His office is used by the FBI to make appointments with students. And in at least one case Watson's secretary has called a student to inquire why he failed to make an appointment with an agent.

Making the FBI's job easier by giving them information they could gather anyway is one thing; that alone could be interpreted as the proper way to be polite and cooperative with a federal agency.

It does seem strange, however, that a College official who claims to have the student's interests as his first concern would be willing to gossip regularly with the FBI. Perhaps agent Sullivan is, in fact, "discreet," but we would prefer that the individual student decide what is confidential--not Dean Watson. Perhaps it is difficult to get students and agents together, but we would prefer that the FBI make and follow up its own appointments--not Dean Watson. Quite simply, the Dean of Students has no business acting as an operative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, however innocent his intent.

No doubt Watson believes he is just extending necessary courtesy to the FBI. But if he really wanted to "help and protect students," as he claims, he would see the conflict between his words and his potentially harmful actions and curtail his contact with the FBI to the minimum formality.

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In a similar but unrelated incident last week, Robert Tonis, Chief of the University Police, accompanied two federal customs agents to a meeting of the Harvard Radcliffe Socialist Club to "introduce" them to a student whom they wished to interrogate. Like Watson, Tonis wanted only to "cooperate" with federal agents.

But, like Watson again, Tonis has misconstrued his role. The main responsibility of the University Police is to protect the property and buildings of Harvard. It is not to arrest or even to investigate criminal suspects. When Tonis accompanies and helps federal agents he goes beyond the bounds of his office and seems to give the University's support to the investigation--support which should instead be given to the student until evidence proves it to be misplaced.

It is perhaps too much to ask Administration officials to be really helpful, to explain to students that they have no legal obligation to meet with or answer the questions of federal agents. But at the very least men like Watson and Tonis should tend to their own business since their recent actions, despite good intentions, have in fact been more helpful to the FBI and custom agents than to students. The federal investigatory agencies will probably get along quite well without the help of the Administration; they seldom have had any trouble fending for themselves.