Divinity Faculty Urges Rejection Of NDEA Funds

The disclaimer affidavit which the National defense Education Act requires is "inimical to the Protestant principle of freedom of belief," the Divinity School Faculty declared last night. "Moreover," the formal statement continued, "it tends to jeopardize the academic obligation of the Divinity school Faculty to promote freedom of inquiry to a wide range of religious and quasi-religious beliefs, as well as to a wide range of critical problems affecting the intellectual, cultural, and moral life of man."

In support of this protest, the Faculty approved the resolution which the Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed on Tuesday. Prepared originally by the Committee on Education, Policy and also supported by the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education, this resolution urges the Corporation not to use NDEA Title II loan funds until the disclaimer affidavit requirement is removed (and significantly does not mention the relatively inoffensive "loyalty oath").

At its meeting, the Faculty "took it for granted that Harvard would seek to relate itself to other U.S. universities in an attempt to seek repeal of the loyalty provision," Dean Samuel H. Miller said last night. Although the Faculty of Arts and Sciences made no specific request of this nature, the Graduate School of Education Faculty did so in its resolution.

According to Professor Samuel L. Adams, chairman of the three-man committee which prepared the Faculty statement in preliminary form, tonight's action represents the "peculiar perspective of the Divinity School, of a faculty engaged in teaching religion, and is not merely a rehearsal of previous debate."