However, a three-month investigation by Spence revealed that Safran did report his CIA funding to the FAS Dean serving before Spence, Henry Rosovsky.

Spence found the former Dean at fault for failing to respond to Safran’s disclosure. The Harvard University Press, which published Safran’s book, also found itself at fault since it did not call attention to the CIA funding when Safran informed the Press of this sponsorship.

Although Safran was in the end not reprimanded for receiving CIA funding for his book, the University found him responsible for failing to disclose his funding sources for the conference.

Subsequently, Safran resigned as director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies but retained professorship after the investigation, a position he held before retiring a year prior to his death in 2003.

According to Lockman, universities have not adequately addressed their links to government funding to this day, adding that educational institutions have to be careful about encouraging scholars to receive state funding and avoid any research agenda set by government agencies.

Today, government agencies are an important source of funding for professors at the Kennedy School, according to Kennedy School Associate Professor Matthew Bunn, who received funding from the government for his research on nuclear terrorism.

But currently, the University now has an extra layer of scrutiny and review, according to Kennedy School Professor Leonard D.B. Herman.

Acceptance of funding from government intelligence agencies now requires “aggressive disclosure” to the Dean, Herman added.

Further, the University has a contractual agreement with government agencies requiring the latter to respect the academic independence of scholars, according to Ashton B. Carter, professor of science and international affairs.

The agreement stipulates that government agencies have the right to preview the research and make suggestions before its publication, but they do not have the right to either suppress or modify the research. Moreover, the University considers the suggestions of agencies, but it does not make itself obligated to conform to them.

According to Carter, he has received more than two dozen grants from the government. Only once did a government agency try to pressure him into changing a manuscript, he said, because the agency did not approve of one chapter of Carter's report. Carter added that he reminded the agency of the University’s policy of academic independence. Eventually the report was publishedunmodified in the mid-1990s.

It is legitimate to receive funding from the government as long as government agencies openly support unclassified research, another Kennedy School professor, Joseph S. Nye, said.

—Staff writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.