Oct. 12, 1985
Harvard Allows Professor to Use $50,000 Grant From C.I.A. For Conference On Islam
Special to the New York Times
A Harvard University professor who accepted a $50,000 grant from the Central Intelligence Agency for a conference on Islamic fundamentalism without informing the school will not be disciplined and the meeting will be allowed to proceed, the university announced today.
A. Michael Spence, dean of the faculty, said the scholar, Nadav Safran, director of Harvard's Middle Eastern Research Center, had ''erred'' in not reporting the source of the funds as required by university policy.
But Mr. Spence said that because Mr. Safran offered assurances that he was under no obligation to conceal the C.I.A.'s sponsorship of the conference and because papers delivered at the meeting would be published, ''I have concluded that the conference should proceed.'' The two-day meeting, to which 100 scholars from the United States and the Middle East have been invited, is scheduled to take place early next week.
Mr. Safran, a Jew who was born in Egypt, is considered one of the leading experts on the Middle East in the United States.
C.I.A. Aided Book
The dispute involving him arose Thursday when The Harvard Crimson reported his acceptance of the C.I.A. funds for the conference. The Boston Globe reported today that Mr. Safran had also accepted $107,430 from the C.I.A. to help finance the research and writing of his book, ''Saudia Arabia, the Ceaseless Quest for Security,'' published by Harvard University Press last month. Although Mr. Safran's book acknowledges help from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rand Corporation and several graduate students, it does not mention the C.I.A. aid.
Harvard does not prohibit professors from accepting research grants from any Federal Government agency, including the C.I.A., Mr. Spence stressed in a statement issued this evening. But Harvard does have strict guidelines requiring its faculty to inform the school whenever they receive government or corporate funds and to assure that the money does not carry any hidden conditions that would abridge academic freedom, he said.
University Rules on Grants
Mr. Spence said that under Harvard's rules professors must turn over to the university up to 60 percent of any funds received to sponsor conferences in order to help defray Harvard's own expenses, like the cost of meeting rooms and secretaries.
''Professor Safran explained that his reason for structuring the funding as he did was to avoid what he believed were excessive costs associated with flowing the proposal through the proper university channels,'' Mr. Spence said.
Mr. Spence said there was no need for him to take action on Mr. Safran's acceptance of C.I.A. money for the book on Saudia Arabia because the professor had notified the university of it. That Mr. Safran chose not to publicly disclose this funding in the book itself is not a matter for Harvard, Mr. Spence said.
Mr. Safran did not return calls to his office seeking comment.
Problems With C.I.A. Aid
Several scholars said today that it was highly unusual for professors to take funds from the C.I.A., especially for work in fields as sensitive as Middle Eastern Studies.
Dennis N. Skiotis, who served as associate director of the Middle Eastern Research Center from 1976 to 1984, said funds from ''the American defense establishment'' were particularly troublesome because of secrecy requirements and anxiety about giving credence to the ''widespread perception in the Middle East that American scholars all have close links to the C.I.A.''