A federal grand jury in Washington yesterday indicted for contempt of Congress eight persons, including three former students at the University, for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee in hearings held in 1953-54.

The three are Lawrence T. Argimbeau '30, associate professor of electrical communications at M.I.T.; suspended Temple University professor Barrows Dunham, a graduate student here in 1932-33; and Marcus Singer Ph.D. '42, instructor here until 1951, when he left for Cornell, as a member of the Zoology Department.