University's Contracts With Iranians Total Over $1.5 Million Since 1974

Harvard has signed contracts with Iranian universities and the Iranian government totalling more than $1.5 million since the fall of 1974.

While the two contracts for a total of $825,000 to develop plans for the proposed Reza Shah Kabir graduate research facility have generated considerable publicity since the first contract was signed in 1974, two additional contracts have remained largely unpublicized.

In 1974, Harvard signed a $690,000 three-year contract with Iran authorizing the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) to direct plans for the development and expansion of the city of Teheran.

And in the summer of 1975, the Harvard Center for Educational Development and Health concluded an $80,000 agreement with the Free University of Iran to train Iranian health professionals in teaching methods.

Med School Suspends Action

In February, the Medical School faculty voted to suspend the school's involvement in the planning of a new Iranian Health Center with Columbia and Cornell Medical schools. The reasons for the suspension of involvement remain unclear.

But the termination of direct involvement in the medical project raised questions concerning the nature and extent of Iranian government intervention in this and similar projects, as well as the regime's alleged failure to honor its contract agreements, a faculty consultant to HIID said Wednesday.

Lester E. Gordon, director of HIID, said yesterday that the Teheran project has encountered "many difficulties."

But he added that the institute "has not been precluded from pursuing any lines of inquiry we deem important."

"We looked [at the nature of the Iranian government] very carefully before we went in, and we decided it would be all right," Gordon said. "We don't see that what we're doing will strengthen the regime, but instead may create new elites prepared to challenge the old elites."

John C. Eddison, associate director of finance and management for HIID, said Wednesday that the 1974 contract was "certainly a major one, and the largest one we're currently engaged in."

He added that the institute has always felt it "more judicious" not to publicize the details of its projects too widely

World Bank Funding

Eddison said the project, funded largely by the World Bank, is aimed at teaching Iranian citizens comprehensive skills in urban planning.

An eight-member HIID team consisting mostly of Harvard graduates and Ph.D.'s has set up an office in Teheran to implement the program, Eddison said.

The HIID consultant said, "HIID is completely incompetent to carry on such a program in the field of international development."

Gordon, however, said the Iranian government turned to Harvard "because we're a University, and not a consulting firm, so at least we're the appropriate unit to train people to do things themselves."

Harvard has been uniquely non-acquisitive," he added. "We did not even solicit our contracts, and even backed out to an extent."

Dr. Ascher J. Segall, director of the Center for Educational Development and Health, said yesterday that the center's recently terminated project was "relatively circumscribed," and was conducted "directly with the Free University of Iran, and not directly with the Iranian government."

Segall said he is not aware of any connection between the Iranian government and the Free University. He added that similar programs are currently underway in several countries, including Israel.

The HIID consultant cited "a number of substantial difficulties," many of them apparently financial, encountered in all the various Harvard-Iran projects.

"The Iranians overextended themselves during the energy crisis; they were too eager to blindly imitate what we have in America," the consultant said, adding that the Iranian government has interfered "in some manner" with every Harvard project to date, including Segall's.

The Medical School's withdrawal from the Iran medical project came after the government substantially reduced the school's development budget.

RSKU Project Criticized

The consultant also criticized the RSKU project, under the direction of Harold L. Goyette, director of the Planning Office, as "very was ful." "No one at Harvard, including Goyette, has any experience in planning a whole university campus," the source said.

"I don't think Harvard's director of planning should spend 99 per cent of his time running around in a country with 40,000 political prisoners in its jails," the consultant added. "If Harvard is not suffering from his absence, it shows you how much it's worth to have him around."

Goyette, who returned from Iran yesterday, said he does not plan to devote full time to the RSKU development, but instead will only "fly to Iran every three months or so" to supervise the project.

Goyette said he is unaware of any government interference in the RSKU project, and added that Harvard's planning office "was absolutely the best office" that could be enlisted in the drafting of the campus master plan