Professors Ask NSF for Money For Computers in Social Sciences

Two Harvard faculty members have contacted top officials in the National Science Foundation (NSF) in an effort to convince them to ask Congress for a dramatic increase in appropriations for projects which, like the Cambridge Project. use computers for social science research.

Philip J. Stone III, professor of Social Relations, and Marshall S. Smith '59, assistant professor of Education: went to Washington two weeks ago and made this suggestion to the director of the NSF's Social Science. Division and to the director of that division's "special project" section. Stone said yesterday that the reaction of the NSF officials was "very supportive."

Stone serves on the advisory committee of the Cambridge Project, while Smith is a member of the E ? School committee investigating, the Project. Presently the Cambridge Project, which uses M.I.T. computers to analyze social science data, is funded only by the Defense Department. Harvard has been invited to join M.I.T. on the Project's governing board.

Besides the NSF officials. Stone and Smith talked with an aide to Lee A. DuBridge. President Nixon's science adviser, and with aides to Sens. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.) and Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) and to Rep. Emilio Q. Daddario (D-Conn.). Kennedy and Daddario head Congressional subcommittees that recommend to Congress how much money to authorize for science research organizations like NSF.

Social Science Shafted

Of the over $100 million which Congress appropriates yearly for NSF, according to Stone, only $15 million goes for social science research, and only $300,000 of that for computer applications in the social sciences. "We need at least a ten-fold increase in computer funds." Stone said.

That increase, as Stone sees it, must come from increasing Congress's appropriations to NSF, rather than from redistribution of the funds which NSF already has. "The NSF has no directive at picking up its social science funds unless Congress tells it to." he said.

"We have an education job to do in Congress," Stone added. "We have to educate them to the new magnitude of expenditures needed in the social sciences, as well as to the possible benefits and dangers from social science research."

The Bureau of the Budget is already preparing the federal government's budget for fiscal year 1971. Stone said, but allocations for foundations like NSF have not yet been settled.

The Cambridge Project advisory committee approved last March the concept of diverse funding for the Project, and the Defense Department agreed to it. "A number of professors at M.I.T. have droppedout of the Project because only the Defense Department is funding it so far," Stone said.

Harvard and M.I.T. professors and interested people from outside of Cambridge will meet tomorrow to discuss what kind of communication to send to NSF urging it to ask Congress for more money for computer applications in the social sciences. Congress cannot appropriate extra money unless NSF specifically requests it.

The members of the NSF governing board include Harvey Brooks, dean of Engineering and Applied Physics; Mrs. Mary I. Bunting, president of Radcliffe; and Fred Smith, assistant professor of Design. Brooks, who chairs the Faculty subcommittee studying the Cambridge Project, said yesterday that he and the other Harvard members of the board disqualify themselves from all matters relating to Harvard.