Trying to Build Heaven in Hell

"...Ali Mousavi Garmaroudi, a teacher with the ministry of education in Iran, was arrested toward the end of 1973. The Iranian authorities have never announced any charges against him... Vida Tabrizi, sociologist and researcher at the University of Teheran, was arrested in July 1972 and detained in Teheran's Ghas Prison..." (excerpted from the Newsletter of the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran.).

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Harvard has always objected to external interference in its academic affairs. That's why it seemed strange when the University consented last year to aid the Iranian government--notorious for tight control over the minds and actions of its citizens--in founding a graduate research center in Iran. The policies of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi are, in many ways, diametrically opposed to precisely those ideals of free expression of speech and thought with which Harvard has always been associated.

Iran is a country virtually run by one person--the Shah, who came to power 22 years ago in a CIA-sponsored coup. A force of 70,000 ever-present secret police, the SAVAK, makes it impossible to question the Shah's policies.

Frederick H. Abernathy, McKay Professor of Mechanical Engineering a member of the Joint Harvard-Iran Commission working to found the Iranian university, says questions of academic freedom may not come into play in an institute devoted exclusively to science and economics. If a student were studying the Shah and condemned him as dictorial, Abernathy adds, "Well, one just doesn't do that in Iranian society."

The proposed Reza Shah Kebir University (RSKU) 500-person post-doctoral institute, "will probably avoid many of the political issues" that develop in larger schools like the University of Teheran, says Richard G. Leahy, associate dean for resources and planning and executive director of the commission. RSKU will be set up to create "an atmosphere that would engender scholarly research" rather than political activity, he says.

But the University didn't consent to the $400,000 contract to plan the institute without making some attempt in their recommendations to insure academic freedom at the school.

RSKU's structure, as outlined in the joint commission's report, closely resembles Harvard's with similar procedures for tenure, governance, and administration.

Written into the lengthy report detailing the university's administration are governing board rules and an admissions policy that are intended to insure active American involvement with the institute for at least 10 to 15 years. The hope is that the Westerners with their heritage of democracy and academic freedom, will be able to shield RSKU from the pressures of Iranian society.

Dr. Chase N. Peterson '52, vice president for alumni affairs and development, says "there is no way to guarantee academic freedom in any institution, at Harvard or in Iran." But he says "you can try to set up institutional procedures to insure free speech" that may work in Iran.

Peterson stresses that Harvard has tried to develop three built-in mechanisms for getting a modicum of free speech:

* selecting top-grade people who will have an innate interest in maintaining academic freedom;

* placing stipulations in all contracts between the faculty and the government which allow those connected with RSKU "to vote with their feet" if they believe their freedom is being curbed; and,

* placing people with access to high government officials in Iran on the governing boards to complain about any problems concerning restraints.

Peterson says he believes the Shah's government would listen to complaints from the governing board because it understands that the institute will not succeed with governmental interference.

An Iranian student who was recently affiliated with Harvard and is active on the Committee for Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran, is more skeptical about the possibilities for a politically unencumbered university. She says that having Westerners on the Board of Governors will not be enough to ensure academic freedom. "If one of the western administrators complains about political repression and says he'll resign unless something is done, the Iranian Government will say, so what? Go."

Nur Yalman, professor of Middle Eastern Studies and a member of the commission, says that maintaining unrestricted education can only be done with "difficulty." "I'm not sure we will be able to do a great deal," Yalman says, but he added that the problem should be no more difficult than maintaining freedom in many European countries, including Spain and Portugal.

But the Iranian student, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said that the Iranian educational situation is much tighter than in Europe. "SAVAK [the secret police] is stationed all around the schools, and in the classrooms. The universities are like army compounds," she said. "Every month there is a Kent State at an Iranian university" that goes unreported by the American press.

"What Harvard is trying to do is create a heaven in hell and it's just not possible."