Ford Group Gets $15 Million Grant, Columbia Project to Publish Study

Columbia's Academic Freedom Project, born in September, 1951, will be one of the first groups of its kind to bear tangible fruits. The Directors of the Project report they will have two volumes ready for publication by February, 1954.

The investigation group was set up through a grant offered to Columbia by a New York businessman. Assisted by a Panel of Advisers, the Project is administered by an Executive Committee consisting of nine Columbia professors, and the Dean of the Yale Law School. Robert M. Maclver heads the group.

According to the Directors, the aim of the group is "to explore the whole issue of academic freedom in the United States. The Project will deal directly with the situation in the colleges and universities but it will...have implications for the school systems as well."

In Two Parts

The investigation has been split into two major parts. One of them headed by History Professors Walter Metzger and Richard Hofstadter, "is a review and interpretation of the changing certitudes of the principle of academic freedom in the history of the United States."

Part two, which is being prepared chiefly by Professor Maclver, "Is an analysis of the contemnor situation, including a study of the respective roles of governing boards, administrative officers, faculties, and students. It will lead us to a formulation of the fundamental considerations on which academic must be based, and the consequent rights and responsibilities of the educator."

According to Maclver, he and his associates have a completely free hand and "...do not to propose to trim any conclusions in order not to offend anybody's susceptibilities."

In the tentative outline of the contents of the column treating the present situation. Maclver, lists sections on "The Lines of Attack on Academic Freedom." "The Academic Freedom of the Student," and "The Rights and Responsibilities of the Educator."

According to Maclver, a considerable portion of both volumes has already been drafted.