CIA Reading Room cia-rdp90-00806r000100690004-1: MSU PROFESSOR ATTEMPTS TO QUASH CIA STUDY GRANT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100690004-1 DETROIT NEWS (MI) 28 October 1985 MSU professor attempts to quash CIA study grant By N. Scott Vance News Staff Writer A math professor said he will ask Michigan State University trustees to reject a $740,000 research contract awarded to a colleague because it is being administered by the Central Intelligence Agency. Th who-year contract, awarded to Professor Shui Nee Chow and ap- proved by MSU administrators, is being overseen by a mathematician who works for the CIA, Chow said. The contract covers unclassified re- search in a highly theoretical field of mathematics. Math Professor John Masterson said he opposes the project because he distrusts the CIA. He also fears that the agency and Defense Department exert too much control over the types of research done on campuses nation- wide. A SIMILAR flap arose at Har- vard University this month, and Mas- terson's concerns have been voiced by a few faculty members on other cam- puses. "I think that for an academic institution to be accepting grants from the CIA, with its reputation for being involved in the murder of peo- pie in Nicaragua, violi]es the whole concept of the free search for ideas," he said. He plans to ask the board in December to reject the contract, but MSU spokesman Charles Downs said the board rarely intervenes in such matters. In addition, the math de- partment's associate chairman said there is little opposition to Chow's contract am