Committee to Study Defense Grants

Following faculty objections to a scholarship program with CIA ties, the Faculty Council Wednesday created a committee to decide whether Harvard will formally permit its students to receive Department of Defense grants

The Council also passed new guidelines providing a structure for the hiring of teaching fellows, said Secretary to the Faculty Council John B. Fox. Jr.' 59. The new hiring policy aims to prevent the annual confusion of professors rushing to hire under prepared teaching fellows (TFs) late in the term.

The National Security Education Program, which offers both undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships for study abroad in critical world areas, will not be formally acknowledged by Harvard until the new committee reports back to the Council

Students will be able to apply to the program on their own, however, and independent applicants will no be disadvantaged by their lack of Harvard endorsement.

Faculty members who opposed Harvard's participation asked the Council to pay special attention to the fact that be Director of the CIA is on the Board of Overseers for the program.

And according to a Council statement, "beyond the purely educational goals of the program, one explicit purpose is to enlarge the pool of qualified applicants for federal intelligence and security agencies."

"These aspects of the program lead some faculty to be concerned about the safety of students funded by this program in some parts of the would," the statement said.

Students who receive funding from the National Security program for 12 months or longer will also incur a national service obligation, the terms of which have not yet been specified.

"Some people were concerned that we would be getting our students involved in a program that seems to be connected to the CIA," said Professor of Chinese History Peter K. Bol, who is a Council member.

Another Council member, Gordon McKay AssociateProfessor of Applied Mechanics Howard A. Stone,said that after listening to the discussion hefound the decision of the Council "reasonable andprudent."

TF guidelines

The Council also passed new guidelines for thehiring of graduate student teaching fellows. Deanof the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences [GSAS]Christoph J. Wolff presented the guidelines forthe Council's approval, Fox said.

The guidelines require professors to notifygraduate students of available teaching positions,declare an application period for the openings andset criteria for the hiring of TFs. Departmentswill also be asked to inform graduate studentsabout the likelihood of their getting a job.

Wolff made a presentation to the Councilexplaining the need for the new policy. Problemswith the present system include the delay ininforming graduate students about teachingassignments, the inconvenience of professorsscrambling to find TFs after a course has begun tomeet, and the trails of undergraduates forced tosuffer through semesters with unprepared andinexperienced TFs.

Many teaching fellows are not informed thatthey will be working in a certain class until thefourth week of the semester, Wolff said.

While almost every GSAS student receivessupport from the University in the form of ateaching stipend, critics claim that the TF markethas been run according to laissez-faire principlesfor some time.

The guidelines are an attempt by the graduateschool to introduce order to this market while notresorting to pre-registration, Fox said.

"I'm certain that graduate students would verymuch like to have these things settled as early aspossible," Bol said.

The freedom Harvard provides for professors insetting up courses and for students in choosingcourses will into the term, after a "shoppingperiod," is the prime reason behind thedisorganization of the TF hiring system, Fox said.

While the guidelines will have no effect onthis term's TF selections, results will likely beobvious as soon as this spring, when professorsare expected to begin hiring their TFs for fallsemester courses.

"I don't know that this will work, but I thinkthat every effort that is made is for the better,"Bol said. "It can't hurt."

But one Council member said that the system wasfine before the new guidelines were imposed. Stonesaid had he had no problem with the unstructurednorm of the past.

"I've always had excellent TFs, and I thinkthat my students would say the same," Stone said."Sometimes they have even been undergraduates.Sometimes they have approached me, and sometimes Ihave approached them."

But Stone conceded that not all professors atHarvard share his luck. "I suspect thatproblematic TFs are more of a difficulty in thehumanities than in the sciences," he said

Another Council member, Gordon McKay AssociateProfessor of Applied Mechanics Howard A. Stone,said that after listening to the discussion hefound the decision of the Council "reasonable andprudent."

TF guidelines

The Council also passed new guidelines for thehiring of graduate student teaching fellows. Deanof the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences [GSAS]Christoph J. Wolff presented the guidelines forthe Council's approval, Fox said.

The guidelines require professors to notifygraduate students of available teaching positions,declare an application period for the openings andset criteria for the hiring of TFs. Departmentswill also be asked to inform graduate studentsabout the likelihood of their getting a job.

Wolff made a presentation to the Councilexplaining the need for the new policy. Problemswith the present system include the delay ininforming graduate students about teachingassignments, the inconvenience of professorsscrambling to find TFs after a course has begun tomeet, and the trails of undergraduates forced tosuffer through semesters with unprepared andinexperienced TFs.

Many teaching fellows are not informed thatthey will be working in a certain class until thefourth week of the semester, Wolff said.

While almost every GSAS student receivessupport from the University in the form of ateaching stipend, critics claim that the TF markethas been run according to laissez-faire principlesfor some time.

The guidelines are an attempt by the graduateschool to introduce order to this market while notresorting to pre-registration, Fox said.

"I'm certain that graduate students would verymuch like to have these things settled as early aspossible," Bol said.

The freedom Harvard provides for professors insetting up courses and for students in choosingcourses will into the term, after a "shoppingperiod," is the prime reason behind thedisorganization of the TF hiring system, Fox said.

While the guidelines will have no effect onthis term's TF selections, results will likely beobvious as soon as this spring, when professorsare expected to begin hiring their TFs for fallsemester courses.

"I don't know that this will work, but I thinkthat every effort that is made is for the better,"Bol said. "It can't hurt."

But one Council member said that the system wasfine before the new guidelines were imposed. Stonesaid had he had no problem with the unstructurednorm of the past.

"I've always had excellent TFs, and I thinkthat my students would say the same," Stone said."Sometimes they have even been undergraduates.Sometimes they have approached me, and sometimes Ihave approached them."

But Stone conceded that not all professors atHarvard share his luck. "I suspect thatproblematic TFs are more of a difficulty in thehumanities than in the sciences," he said