n031  1033  25 Oct 83
BC-REAGAN-LIBRARY
(Scinece Times)
By WALLACE TURNER
c. 1983 N.Y. Times News Service
    SAN FRANCISCO - A proposal to build a Ronald Reagan presidential
library at Stanford University in Palo Alto has prompted a campus
debate.
    There are three parts to the proposed complex: the library and a
Ronald Reagan museum, both of which would be managed by a federal
archivist at a cost of about $2 million a year to be paid by the
federal government; and a Ronald Reagan institute on public affairs
to be managed by the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace.
    In its present form, the proposal to locate the Reagan papers at the
Hoover Institution is the product of a recently formed Hoover
committee, though Reagan's longstanding links with the institution
have apparently given rise to such suggestions for years.
    Some members of the Stanford faculty see the Hoover Institution,
which was established on the campus in 1919 with a gift from Herbert
Hoover of $50,000 and his papers up to that time, as a national
center for conservative political activity. Earlier this year,
faculty demands for change in the university-institution relationship
led the Stanford trustees to create an oversight committee to
consider ''matters of governance, appointments, sharing of scholarly
resources and other matters of mutual interest'' between the
university and the Hoover Institution.
    The institution's director, W. Glenn Campbell, reports to Donald
Kennedy, president of Stanford. The institution's board of overseers
is appointed by the Stanford trustees. The Stanford trustees control
fund-raising and use of the campus land; their approval is necessary
for carrying out the Reagan presidential library proposals advanced
through the institution.
    President Reagan is an honorary fellow at the Hoover Institution. He
has named Campbell chairman of the Intelligence Oversight Board and a
member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. During
his California governorship, Reagan appointed Campbell a regent of
the University of California.
    Among the 29 other Reagan administration figures with Hoover
Institution ties are Martin Anderson, former policy development
assistant to Reagan; Richard V. Allen, former national security
adviser; and Philip C. Habib, former special envoy to the Middle East.
    The Reagan governorship and 1980 presidential campaign papers have
already been deposited at the Hoover Institution.
    In September Anderson, as chairman of a committee named by Campbell,
unveiled the current plan to locate the Reagan Library at Stanford
under the auspices of the institution.
    The Anderson committee urged in a Sept. 30 report that the proposed
complex ''represents an immensely valuable academic resource to the
entire Stanford community.''
    Seven United States senators, four of them graduates of Stanford and
two with family ties, signed a letter urging the university to accept
the Reagan library complex.
    The Stanford alumni are Alan Cranston of California, Jeff Bingaman
of New Mexico and Max Baucus of Montana, all Democrats, and Mark O.
Hatfield, R-Ore. The others are Republicans Chic Hecht of Nevada and
Charles H. Percy of Illinois, each of whom has a daughter who
enrolled at Stanford, and Pete Wilson of California.
    Some members of the university faculty, however, opposed the
institution.
    ''I do not believe the political activities of the Hoover
Institution or the Hoover's proposed Reagan complex can stand the
light of day,'' said John Manley, an English professor who was a
leader in the earlier campaign that led the Stanford trustees to set
up the oversight committee for the institution.
    During the summer, Kennedy appointed a faculty study committee
headed by Professor James Rosse, director of the Stanford Center for
Economic Policy Research. In their report to Kennedy, that committee
said the proposed complex ''carries a promise of significant value to
the university'' but also warned that the institute could
''significantly change the role of the Hoover Institution within
Stanford.'' The committee opposed such a change.
    Twenty members of the Stanford Law School faculty have signed a
letter to the Rosse committee in which they oppose establishment on
campus of the Reagan museum and the Reagan public affairs institute.
    When the Stanford trustees met on campus earlier this month, Edwin
Meese 3d, White House counselor, spoke by telephone to William
Kimball, the board president. The conversation was heard by the other
trustees.
    Meese urged the trustees to give quick approval to the plans, but
Kimball, president of a San Francisco investment and property
management firm, said, ''We have to go through our regular procedures
and not be overwhelmed by speed.''
    Stanford's student senate meets Tuesday night to discuss the issues,
and the University will publish, in tabloid form, about 150 letters
from the faculty. Kennedy, who told the 1,200-member faculty that its
views would be heard before any decision is reached, will comment on
the Rosse report for the first time at a faculty senate meeting
Thursday. Kennedy is expected to comment on the Rosse report for the
first time at a faculty senate meeting Thursday. The next meeting of
the board of trustees is scheduled for Dec. 13.
    ''We want to get this resolved,'' Kennedy said. ''There is no
earthly purpose in prolonging this part of the decision-making
process.''
    
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