No More Soldiers Here

The Pentagon's half-hearted blacklisting of Harvard has finally become a wholehearted one. The Crimson learned this week that at the insistence of Rep. F. Edward Hebert (D-La.), the Pentagon will no longer allow military personnel to attend graduate programs at the Business and Law Schools.

The original blacklist made it appearance in February 1972 when the House Armed Services Committee, with Hebert at its head, ruled that the Defense Department could not train its military personnel at universities that have unilaterally dropped ROTC. The ruling stipulated that personnel could continue to train at any university with "unique and irreproduceable programs."

Military personnel continued to enroll in Business and Law School programs after the Pentagon decided that both schools were unique. Officers from all three branches made heavy use of the Business School's Advanced Management Program.

All of that changed this fall when the Business School lost its "unique institution status."

The reason for the sudden change in Pentagon policy became the subject of a mild debate this week. Lawrence E. Fouraker, dean of the Business School, claimed that the Pentagon changed its mind only when Hebert threatened it with lowered appropriations if it continued to send its personnel to Harvard. A Pentagon spokesman said that the change came only after the Defense Department determined that the University of Pittsburgh offered a management training program as good as Harvard's.

Fouraker's side of the debate was supported by a House Armed Services Committee source who said that Hebert "doesn't want to send military men to the corrupting influences of Harvard."

"Hebert's afraid soldiers would get all sorts of funny ideas into their heads at a place like Harvard," the source said.

The Business School has already replaced the lost military personnel with civilian government employees. Harvard lost no government funding because of the blacklisting action.