Faculty Requests Computer Study

The Faculty devoted much of its two-hour meeting yesterday to discussions of research policy and computer use.

By an overwhelming vote, the Faculty approved a resolution requesting President Pusey to set up a University-wide committee "to promote and oversee the development of computer-based social science at Harvard."

The resolution, proposed by I. Bernard Cohen, professor of the History of Science, also directed the Faculty Council to establish a committee "to deal with the general questions of the security and privacy of files," including both University records and social science data.

The Faculty also discussed briefly a series of proposals intended to codify the Faculty's research policy.

A. G. Oettinger, professor of Linguisties and Applied Mathematics, said he suggested the proposals with the intention of ruling out what he called the "politically-motivated" debate in the Faculty over the Cambridge Project.

Dean Dunlop said the proposals are being circulated among the departments prior to consideration by the Committee on Research Policy, the Faculty Council, and eventually the full Faculty.

The fourth item on yesterday's docket, the Committee of Fifteen's proposals for disciplinary rules and procedures, was postponed until a special meeting March 24.