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Unfortunately, the proposed screening committee is likely to have great trouble deciding which military projects are appropriate for the special labs. For example, all members of the special review panel judged the Poseidon program, now that it is out of the basic-research stage, improper for a university-connected lab. But they split sharply over the I-lab's work on Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. The majority defended it on the grounds that VTOLs could be used to speed civilian intercity transit and the project is "far from the production-prototype stage." By contrast, antiwar Guru Noam Chomsky vehemently argued that VTOLs would be used mainly for "repressing domestic insurgency in countries subject to our influence or control." Another problem, not answered by the panel: Would there be time to develop a prototype weapons system during the "grave national emergency" that the panel majority agreed would justify such work? An even more fundamental question is whether the labs can raise enough money for domestic and social-research projects to shift significantly away from military work. Administrators agree that the money will have to come from Washington. With the Nixon Administration in a budget-cutting mood, there are grounds for doubt that it will be available.
Ready for Violence. If the labs cannot be redirected toward civilian work, says M.I.T. President Johnson, the university may divorce them, presumably by selling the labs to business or the government. Stanford and Cornell are trying that solution with their own special labs.* It might please moderate students and faculty who do not object to weapons research as such but consider it out of place in a university. It definitely would not please the radicals, who want to stop all war-related research at the special labs, whether or not M.I.T. operates them.
The November Action Coalition, a loose grouping of radical organizations in the Boston area, threatens a demonstration at the Instrumentation lab this week. The militants do not have much support on campus; the M.I.T. faculty gave President Johnson a standing ovation recently when he promised "to call upon the civil authorities for help" in stopping any violence. The undergraduate senate, which is the body most representative of student opinion, also endorsed Johnson's stand. Nevertheless, the special labs are taking no chances. Stout screens now cover the windows of the Instrumentation lab, and two-by-fours are on hand to bar the doors.
*With some unexpected difficulty in Cornell's case. The New York State attorney general has filed suit to block sale of the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory to EDP Technology, Inc., a Washington, D.C., company. The state contends that Cornell has no right to sell the lab to a private, profit-making company.