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MIT Reviews Policy on Classified Research
A faculty committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, convened to reexamine the institution’s policies governing classified research, recommended in June that the university continue to ban such research on campus while allowing it in off-campus facilities.
The recommendation, made in a report titled In the Public Interest, comes at a time when federal laws and policies governing access to and disclosure of research materials and information are becoming more restrictive, partly because of concerns about terrorism. But both national security and the strength of the economy depend on the advancement of science and technology and on the education of future generations, the report says. "The well-being of our nation will ultimately be damaged if education, science, and technology suffer as a result of any practices that indiscriminately discourage or limit the open exchange of ideas," the committee wrote.
When the government designates research as classified, each individual working on it and the facility in which it is conducted must receive a security clearance, and dissemination of the research is controlled. Restrictions on such research became common about a quarter-century ago, and protests arose over research seen as supporting the Vietnam War that was then conducted by many institutions. The classified-research policies of some institutions refer directly to the debates of that period; Illinois State University’s policy, for example, specifically prohibits "any contract supporting research for the purpose of killing, maiming, or incapacitating human beings through chemical, biological, or other types of military warfare."
MIT is motivated mainly by a concern for fairness and a belief in the importance of the free interchange of information, says Helen Samuels, a staff member in the provost’s office. "Science and engineering move forward through shared information, and MIT’s longstanding policy has been that we're not going to have areas on campus that are inaccessible to certain faculty and students." Foreign faculty and students, in particular, often have difficulty in obtaining the government security clearances necessary for classified work.
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