Six University faculty members, including two full professors, one associate professor, and three instructors will testify before Senator William E. Jenner's Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in Boston today, the CRIMSON learned last night. Two Law students will also appear.
Of the eight called, the names of all but one remain unknown. Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, yesterday issued a statement saying he had been subpoenaed and would testify. He stated he would "be glad to co-operate to the fullest extent of my knowledge in any legitimate investigation that the committee wishes to make."
Contacted yesterday, Harlow Shapley, Paine professor of Practical Astronomy, told the CRIMSON he had not been subpoenaed by the committee.
Other Schools
A committee spokesman said in Washington yesterday that in addition to the eight from Harvard, four men had been subpoenaed from M. I. T., and one each from B. U., Smith, Wellesley, and Amherst. This is one less than the number 17 originally announced by the committee.
The committee begins its hearings at 9:15 a.m. in Courtroom 5 on the 12th floor of Boston's Federal Building. Today's hearings will be secret, but Jenner yesterday hinted that the committee may decide to hold public hearings too.
Special guards from the U. S. Marshal's office have been assigned for duty to the courtroom and floor.
With the Jenner group is their committee counsel, Robert Morris.
Earlier this month, a committee spokesman revealed that all those called for the secret hearing would be asked point-blank if they were or had ever been members of the Communist party.
"Nothing to Hide"
In his statement Mather said "as far as I know, and I have been a member of the Harvard faculty for 29 years, Harvard University has absolutely nothing to hide."
Mather expressed the wish that the present investigation will make the principle of intellectual freedom more widely understood.
"If it does so," he said. "It will help to counter the alarming trend toward the establishment in America of the pattern of thought control which is characteristic of the totalitarian state."
He went on to say that "the only useful purpose that any such Congressional investigation of an educational institution, or of its faculty members can possibly serve is for the investigating committee to make known to the public at large the true objectives of higher education in a democratically-organized state and to announce the degree of success attained by such institutions as Harvard University in fulfilling their responsibilities toward these objectives."
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