An article appearing in the University of Vermont's campus newspaper revealed Thursday that the university's police force had passed information on student radicals to the F. B. I.

Gary H. Barnes, author of the article and editor of the newspaper, charged that the university police were ordered by Chief of Campus Security Frederick Barrett to monitor activities of militant students. He said that Barrett passed the information to "close friends" in the F. B. I.

University spokesman denied the charges. Barrett, however, admitted that he had provided the F. B. I. with "information of a public nature," but "only when it had been requested."

Barnes's article was based on a sworn affidavit of Thomas Hetinger, a former campus security officer who left his job for "personal reasons" early this fall.

Hetinger said that aside from reports he had made on those who led demonstrations, he had seen a number of references to the F. B. I. in handwritten notes on Barnes' papers, and photographs-with "X's' on the heads of radical leaders-which he believed were sent to the F. B. I.

"The students realize that the administration did not plan or have knowledge of this," Barnes said. "The administration has not taken on the policy or program of spying on students."

Yesterday, despite several feet of snow, between 400 and 500 students rallied on the university campus to protest the arrangement between Barrett and the F. B. I. "The student body is up in arms," Barnes said. "With this incident taking place right after an attempt to fire a radical political-science professor, it has pushed things over the boiling point."

Harvard's chief security officer, Robert Tonis, said that his office had no arrangements with the F. B. I. "I don't know what's happening in other parts of the country," he said. "But hell no, nothing of the sort is happening here."

James L. Handley, chief of the Boston F. B. I. office, had "no comment whatsoever to make."