Afro Opposes Cambridge Project, Wants No Harvard Participation

Harvard Afro said yesterday that it opposes Harvard participation in the Cambridge Project.

A policy statement issued by Afro said, "Realistically, our chances of foreing the United States Government to stop this project are slight. We are absolutely opposed, however, to the participation of Harvard University officially, or any of the individuals involved, in this colonialist Big Brother operation."

Afro adopted the policy position in a meeting Sunday.

"This is an issue we felt compelled to respond to," Mark D. Smith '72, said. "We thought it would be useful to make our position clear. We are concerned with whether Harvard participates in the Cambridge Project, either as an institution or as a body of individuals," he added.

The Cambridge Project, funded by the Department of Defense, would use advanced computer technology for social science research. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is currently participating in the Project, and a Harvard faculty committee is discussing possible Harvard participation.

Data Banks

The first part of the Cambridge Project proposal says, "The U. S. Government and the Department of Defense face many problems that are in large part behavioral-science problems, and they need pertinent behavioral-science knowledge for use in solving those problems." The project will include a data bank that will have terminals both in Cambridge and in Washington.

Afro's statement said, "Project Cambridge and its ill-fated predecessor, Project Camelot, both funded by the United States Department of Offense (sic), represent the transition in U. S. foreign policy from Imperialism to Psycho-Imperialism. They are prototype applications of social science data-gathering and model-building techniques to the Offense Department's 'global mission.'

"Sociologist I. L. Horowitz said that Project Camelot's purpose was measuring and forecasting the causes of revolutions and insurgency in underdevolp-areas of the world. It also aimed to find way of climinating the causes, or coping with the revolutions and insurgencies."

Later, the statement quoted from the Cambridge Project proposal: " 'Our urban problems will be better handled if we can teach better, reduce conflicts, and organize our efforts better.' Black people do not need the Offense Department to reduce conflicts for us; we know only too well in whose favor that will end."