Whitlock Says University Is Unable to Help HISC

After two weeks of silence, Harvard has answered the House Internal Security Committee's letter, which requests information on the sources of funds for radical speakers on campus, and has said that it will be unable to comply with the request.

In answering the HISC letter, Harvard has left open the question of whether or not it views the HISC request as a threat to the right of free speech.

In a letter to Rep. Richard H. Ichord (DMo.), chairman of HISC, Charles P. Whitlock, assistant to the President for Civic and Governmental Relations, said that Harvard does not have the information the committee requested because "matters such as who is invited to speak and whether the speaker is paid (and if paid, what amount) are wholly within the control of the student organizations."

The absence of any information about such speakers was the only reason cited for complying with the HISC request.

Whitlock was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Harvard is one of 179 colleges across the nation and one of four in Massachusetts to receive the HISC letter.

No Reply

Two of the Massachusetts colleges-Williams and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst-have not responded to the HISC letter yet.

But Tufts refused to comply with the HISC request on the grounds that it "suggests grave and ominous implications involving constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and other freedoms which the university has traditionally enjoyed and protected."

Ichord said that the HISC wants the information to determine "the extent to which today's extremist and radical speakers have used the forum of college and university campuses to finance revolutionary violence among a militant minority of young people."