University officials say Harvard has been slow to take the lead in responding to the Defense and other departments new regulations, primarily because Harvard has escaped concrete harm. But with President Bok chairing the AAU next year and Shattuck's interest in the issue, this is expected to change.

"We need to be in the lead, fighting for the integrity of research," Shattuck says, adding. "We haven't yet made this the priority that I plan to make it."

Still, Harvard will be far behind the early leads of universities like Caltech, MIT and Stanford, which will be hardest hit by the actual and proposed limitations on publication and exchange of research. In April, the presidents of the three universities formally protested the Department of Defense's announcement that it would be more liberal in classifying scientific research as "sensitive," making it subject to greater restrictions in publication. The presidents have met with officials, including Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger '38, says Allan J. Lindstrom, Caltech's sponsored research director.

A sizable chunk of Caltech's $50 million sponsored research budget comes from the Defense Department, but almost all of that amount goes for basic rather than applied research. Few new restrictions effect this money, according to Lindstrom, though researchers are required to submit their findings to the sponsor and publisher simultaneously. Because the publishing process takes between six months and two years before the findings appear, however, "the sponsor already has plenty of time to take a look at it, and talking to the professor is necessary," he says.

Lindstrom says he anticipates Caltech will turn down increasing numbers of federal grants and contract in the future, with the imposition of stiffer pre-publication review requirements.

But Harvard and other universities plan to make responses that go beyond simply rejecting contracts. "It's now become increasingly clear that the [federal government's] prevailing idea is that information has to be restricted to keep it from falling into the hands of countries who might be enemies of the U.S.," says Shattuck, "and we've got to respond accordingly."

Shattuck's office will conduct a study this summer to quantify the effects, if any, of the past two year's stiffer regulations on sponsored research funding.

After those results come in, Shattuck says, Harvard will form "coalitions and working groups with other institutions concerned about First Amendment issues."