SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 2--The head of an educational institution has not only the right but also the responsibility to speak out on controversial subjects, President Pusey said yesterday in answer to a question following his address to the Commonwealth Club of California.

"I don't believe the head of a university has special qualification to express his opinion on every subject," the President said. "But in the area of his own competence, he has not only the right but the responsibility to speak out. It is not the function of the head of a university to seek, at all costs, to avoid controversy."

Pusey was also asked if the University library made any effort to discriminate for or against books favorable to Communism. "The library," he explained, "tries to find books of some meaning for scholars in every area of knowledge. Any publication should find its way into the university library.... One cannot be ignorant of things that can ruin you."

Another questioner asked how Harvard's Russian Research Center avoided being an "echo of Communist propaganda." President Pusey replied that the scholar "is the last to reflect propaganda." He further asserted that "the belief that teachers are corrupted by the party line is a myth."

Questioned about Harvard's attitude toward the United Nations, Pusey replied that the University must view any effort towards world peace as worthy of its support. The United Nations, he said, is the best "present device" to further this objective.

President Pusey's remarks were addressed to a group of about 300 members of the Commonwealth Club. Recordings of these were taken for later broadcast over a seven-station network throughout the Pacific Coast and inter-mountain states.