Group Protests S. Africa Funds

Members of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory are protesting the continued use of Smithsonian funds to support the Boyden Observing Station in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Citing the apartheid policies which prevail at the Boyden Station, 71 students, faculty and employees at the two observatories in Cambridge wrote a letter to Smithsonian officials asking that they withhold support from the South African observatory.

"We believe in the internationalismof science, but the most basic ideal of internationalism-the speed of scientific knowledge and technological advances to all people, without national or racial barriers-is violated by South Africa's denial to blacks of equal education and economic benefits of modern technology," the letter said.

Jeffrey A. Hoffman, teaching fellow in Astronomy, said that the letter was the result of a series of lunch-time discussions among members of the two observatories.

"We're investigating the legality of sending Federal funds to support a facility clearly based on racist principles," Hoffman said. "Cooperation with South African policies is certainly immoral."

Fred L. Whipple, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, disagreed with the group's desire to isolate South Africa from the rest of the scientific world. "I agreed completely with their motivations but the methodology of creating an intellectual blockade in education, arts, or the sciences I consider an unsound method of bringing about that scat of change," Whipple said.

"There's a good place for an observatory there," he added.

The Boyden Observing Station was originally built by Harvard, but the University left the project in 1955. It is now run by a consortium of observatories from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Sweden, Germany and Belgium, as well as the Smithsonian.

According to Hoffman, the Boyden Station receives $3000 annually from the Smithsonian for operating expenses. This year, the South African observatory is asking for $12,000 in contributions.