MIT Ad Hoe Committee Named After Iranian-Linked Dispute

A dispute over whether 57 Iranian students should be allowed to enter the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's graduate course in Nuclear Engineering has resulted in the formation of an ad hoe advisory committee to consider MIT's international' commitments.

The committee will not however, consider abolishing the Iranian program.

A spokesman for MIT President Jerome Wiesner said yesterday the membership of the new committee will be announced soon, and that the committee will probably consist of seven faculty members and two students.

The program will permit 57 Iranians to study Nuclear Engineering at MIT at a cost of nearly $10,000 per student to the Iranian government. The normal student tuition will be $3,700 next year, but MIT officials have said that facilities will have to be expanded to accommodate the Iranian students, necessitating the higher charge.

Protest

The program, announced in early March. has prompted protests from students and faculty culminating in a student group's sit in at MIT's nuclear engineering building on April 25.

The students objected to MIT's association with the Iranian government a regime which they believe denies civil liberties and suppresses political dissent.

The program is apparently opposed by a majority of the MIT student body--80 per cent of the student's voting in a referendum last month favored not implementing the program.

In a faculty meeting held the same day as the referendum, two proposals to abandon of reconsider the program were defeated. The faculty established the ad hoe committee as a compromise measure at that meeting.

A number of faculty members who supported the establishment of the committee argued that the faculty was not consulted before the Iranian program was announced.

The committee is expected to present a report on its plans at MIT's next faculty meeting May 15. The program, however, will begin in September with the arrival of 27 Iranians.