The President emphasized yesterday that despite the strong action of the Corporation, the University has no objection to "responsible" research with consciousness-expanding drugs. Alpert is the only Faculty member to be dismissed since Pusey became President in 1953, although a few men have "resigned under duress."

The University has had serious doubts about the nature of the drug research conducted by Alpert and Leary for some time, but took the action yesterday on the basis of definite evidence received in the last few weeks.

Last fall a committee of the Laboratory of Social Relations failed to come to an agreement with Alpert on controls for the drug research, and the Laboratory and Alpert agreed the research could not continue at Harvard. Yesterday's decision was not related to the methods of Alpert's investigation, but solely to his unauthorized use of at least one undergraduate as a research subject.

Robert F. Bales, Director of the Laboratory, said last night that Alpert was unwilling to relinquish drugs he intended for his personal use, claiming he had a citizen's right to possess them. In view of this the Laboratory felt it was impossible to establish "proper control of the drugs."

Bales said Alpert's colleagues were "subjected to unpleasant pressures" while the investigations were being discussed. Many members of the department felt Alpert was not conducting his work with a scientific approach.

Less than a week later, however, the Deputy Commissioner of the State Health Department expressed the opinion that "psilocybin falls into the classification of drugs that must be administered by a physician." Alpert disagreed with the opinion.

By now, the publicity attendant on the drug Investigations had attracted the attention of the Massachusetts Food and Drugs Division, which, in April 1962, launched an inquiry into Alpert's and Leary's work. On April 16, this agency decided that the research could continue only if physicians were present while the drugs were administered. Subsequently a Faculty committee was named to "advise and oversee" future studies of psilocybin. This group met informally several times, but exercised very little supervision. At the end of the spring term of 1962, the drug issue seemed settled. It wasn't.

In October 1962, Leary announced the formation of the International Foundation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), a private organization to administer and investigate consciousness-expanding drugs. One month later, Dean Monro and Dana L. Farnsworth, director of University Health Services, became alarmed at growing undergraduate interest in drugs and the increasing circulation of illegally obtained drugs. They issued a statement warning undergraduates that these compounds "may result in serious hazard to the mental health and stability even of apparently normal persons."

Within a few days, rumors of vast drug black markets in Harvard Square had made the front pages of Boston papers. Monro and Farnsworth repeated their warning. Monro called the drugs "a serious psychiatric hazard" and said, "I don't like anyone urging our undergraduates to use them."

Alpert and Leary in a long letter to the Crimson attacked this official University position, calling it "conservative from the administrative point of view" but "reckless and inaccurate from the scientific."

As in the spring, this publicity aroused the interest of law enforcement agencies, and the Federal Food and Drug Administration admitted it was investigating illegal sales of hallucinogenic drugs in Cambridge. No results of this investigation were announced.

Alpert and Leary next appeared in the news in February 1963, when their "communal home" in Newton involved them in zoning litigation. In March, the two psychologists started an extensive recruiting campaign for IFIF. In the literature they mailed to many persons in Cambridge, they said they had separated their researches amicably from the University.

In a speech at Leverett House on May 1, 1963. Alpert expressed regret that Harvard had found it necessary to rule that no undergraduates could take part in his experiments and said he hoped that those who did not understand the drugs or feared new developments would not prevent him and others from continuing the experiments.