MAY 2~ 1969

 

 

Sranrorp University ScHOOL OF MEDICINE
Department of Genetics

‘Campus Totalitarians) "ep

- ‘The. alarming concept that extremism in the hands «

of allegedly idealistic young radicals is no vice is
‘beginning to undermine the very foundations of
academic freedom. es

| The extent of the erosion’ of principles without

which free society cannot survive has been under-

scored by reports of a deliberate campaign of harass-
ment conducted by militant New Left students against
Dr. Arthur Jensen, an educational psychologist at
Berkeley. Dr. Jensen has come under attack for a
research paper, published in the Harvard Educational
Review, which suggests that hereditary factors, in
addition to environmental ones, may account for
lower averages in 1.Q. scores shown by Negroes and
other disadvantaged groups. ars
_. The question is not whether ‘the Jensen research
‘is valid. There is much evidence that it is being
‘abused by some who want to bolster their racist
prejudices, although this was clearly not Dr. Jensen’s
intention. As Dr. Joshua Lederberg, the Nobel Prize
geneticist at Stanford University, has pointed out,
the study serves as a reminder that diseases, malnu-
trition or dietary imbalances, éither during prenatal
Or early childhood stages or as a consequence of
conditions of past history, may have to be investi-
‘Zated further for their influence on the heredity of
various ethnic groups. While Dr. Lederberg disagrees
with some aspects of the Jensen hypothesis—particu-
larly the doubts it throws on compensatory education
programs, which at best are still in their experimental
infancy—he also‘ leaves no doubt that its publication
was a scientific contribution and should be treated
as such. .

“ This-is the heart of the matter. The young totali-

tarians who have harassed Dr. Jensen and whose

tactics of pressure and smear have led to the resig-
nation of one of the scholar’s staff members pose
a threat to the future of free inquiry that can no
longer be ignored. A campus on which classes must
be shifted to secret meeting places in order to avoid
disruption may soon Cease to be a campus at all.

. There is special irony that these outrages against
free speech are being perpetrated at Berkeley, where
the student rebellion originated under the banner of
the Free Speech Movement. The subjugation of science
—including theories of heredity—to the orthodoxies
of political revolutions have been the mark of Fascist,
Nazi and Stalinist totalitarianism. Surrender to such
lactics cannot be tolerated on the American campus. -

<—

STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 « (415) $21-1200

7

Mr. Harry Schwartz
The New York Times

Dear Harry:

I. was very pleased to see this.

Perhaps a much smaller issue, but I
am a little abashed about my pedagogic
skill if I left ofen the possibility that
early environment could influence the
heredity of ethnics groups.* I know that
I might be hypersensitive about the pre-
cision of the vocabulary in my own spe-
cialty. Let me point out, at least to
you, that there is no issue about influen-
cing the heredity (the genes) of the
children. that we are talking about is
wxis exclusively about the xntexrnxxtin
complicated expression of a given heredity.

Unfortunately, Shockley's militant
obscurantism has to provoke this kind
of reaction.

All the best

Wp ;

oshua Lederberg

# eyerot by retinal selecTin sb,

LT. J. P. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HEREDITY

NEUROBIOLOGY

DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE