M.I.T. Gives Up Control of I-Labs

M.I.T. will relinquish control of its Instrumentation Laboratories, M.I.T. President Howard W. Johnson announced yesterday.

The institute will transfer the "Habs"-which developed the initial guidance systems for space Hights-to corporate owners, Johnson said.

The executive committee of the M.I.T. Corporation decided last October to bar the Habs from performing military research. The decision aunounced yesterday rested heavily on the earlier directive, Johnson said.

The relinquishing of the "I-labs-long an object of student protest-does not affect M.I.T.'s Lincoln Laboratories, which will continue to perform broader development research that is "not so close to the hardware." Albert G. Hill, M.I.T. research vice president. said yesterday.

Last November, 375 members of the November Action Coalition (NAC) obstructed entrance for three hours to one of the I-labs. Several hundred metropolitan police. some carrying shotguns and dogs. dispersed them.