piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (11/20/85)
Posted: Fri Nov 15, 1985 3:47 PM EST Msg: TGIF-2115-7859
From: RPARK
To: WHATSNEW
CC: RPark
Subj: What's New
WHAT'S NEW, Friday, November 15, 1985 Washington, D.C.
1. CURRENT THREATS TO ACADEMIC FREEDOM were discussed
yesterday at a meeting in Washington sponsored by the
American Association of University Professors. The interest
of the press seemed to focus almost entirely on the
discussion of "Accuracy in Academia," the recently created
organization that recruits monitors to tattle on professors
who deviate from AIA's version of truth. The target of the
first "AIA Report" is a professor at Arizona State
University, who allegedly devotes Political Science 101 to
"serving up anti-nuclear polemics." To make matters worse,
when he wasn't talking about the nuclear arms race, he was
warning the students about overpopulation and man's
encroachment on the environment.
The new AIA president is John LeBoutillier, a 1979
graduate of the Harvard Business School and one-term
(1983-1985) Congressman from New York. Contributors of $25
or more to AIA will receive a free copy of LeBoutillier's
book, "Harvard Hates America."
The representatives of the 115 organizations that have
endorsed the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom
and Tenure did not appear to share the press's preoccupation
with AIA. Other topics on the agenda included government
restrictions on academic freedom, academic freedom and
precollege education, irregular appointments and periodic
review, and academic freedom at church-related institutions.
2. SUPPORT FOR THE STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE was
contained in a statement issued last week on the occasion of
a seminar on SDI in Washington sponsored by the Global
Foundation. The statement is signed by a number of prominent
physicists, including Eugene Wigner, Alvin Weinberg, Joseph
Weber and Fred Singer. It appears to be one the first
organized efforts by scientists to counter the pledge not to
work on SDI (What's New, October 18). That pledge continues
to gain signatures in the physics departments of major
universities.
3. THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND ARMS CONTROL at
Stanford University is inviting mid-career scientists who
have demonstrated excellence in their specialty to apply to
the Science Fellows Program of the Center. The Center plans
to award two or three fellowships for 1986-87. The purpose
of the program is to train scientists with strong technical
capabilities for participation in U.S. policy planning in the
fields of arms control, international security and defense
policy and planning.
Robert L. Park (202) 429-1946
American Physical Society THAT'S ALL 11/15/85