DAS Refuses to Show Field Reports to SDS

About 25 members of the Harvard-Radcliffe SDS marched on the Development Advisory Service (DAS) yesterday morning to demand access to "interim" project reports on DAS activities.

Lester Gordon, Director of DAS, Gustav Papanek, former DAS director, and John Thomas, a Development Advisor, met with the students to explain that the reports were "privileged material" which were "kept confidential because of the interest in frank and free internal communications."

SDS accused Gordon of having the confidential statements taken out of the library after their request last week to see the reports.

Gordon denied this, saying the only documents which he removed were "a small handful" of World Bank Reports which had been specifically sent either to Papanek or to himself.

"But Mr. Gordon, that is just not true," exclaimed one of the library assistants at the Economic Development Library. "The reports you removed were mimeographed; the World Bank reports are never sent as 'mimeographed' copies."

"Besides it was not just a 'handful' but a huge box of papers that you were tearing up." She added that Gordon had removed a lot of confidential statements from the drawers of the library which were not mostly World Bank reports.

Gordon denied this, accusing the woman of doing a poor job in the library and added that "99 44/100 per cent of our documents are down in the library; I don't even know where the other stuff is."

According to the library assistant, however, the library staff was informed in a meeting last Tuesday that, although the documents were "innocuous," the DAS had decided to make them unavailable because it "had to draw the line somewhere."