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Associated Press story of January 23, 1982

Universities Rebuff State Department Restrictions on Soviet Visitor

    STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - A widening dispute over the federal
government's attempt to extend anti-Soviet sanctions to academia has
lopped two universities from the itinerary of a Soviet scientist whose
specialty is robots.
    Stanford University has been declared off-limits to Nikolay Umnov
because the school refused to honor State Department restrictions on
his visit. The university said it could not successfully police a
visit, and that to make the attempt would disrupt the free environment
needed for creative work to take place.
    The University of Wisconsin followed Stanford's lead Friday, saying
it was an ''open institution.''
    Wisconsin Asssociate Dean Camden A. Coberly and professor Ali A.
Seireg said they plan to withdraw their acceptance of Umnov's visit.
That move will reduce the scientist's itinerary to Auburn University
and Ohio State University.
    But at Ohio State University, where Umnov was to spend six weeks,
professor Robert B. McGhee said Umnov would be ''welcome for two or
three days. I'd accept restrictions for a visit of that length, but
not any longer.''
    Umnov has been caught in a dispute over what visiting Soviet
scientists can see and do during a three-month scientific exchange
program that is sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and
funded by the U.S. government.
    As part of the Reagan administration's attempt to restrict Soviet
access to U.S. technology, the State Department said Umnov couldn't
see anything not already published in open literature.
    It also said he should be restricted to mechanical theory of robotic
locomotion, with no industrial visits and no access to control units
or computer programming techniques that have given robots new
flexibility and made them more useful in the workplace.
    The measures are justified because the government is paying for the
visit, said Sue Pittman, a State Department spokeswoman. She also
cited ''possible technology transfer risks,'' an administration term
for thefts or leaks of U.S. scientific secrets.
    The restrictions reached universities hosting Soviet scholars via
letters from the national academy. As criticism of the restrictions
mounted, the NAS on Tuesday halted distribution of the letters.
    The restrictions are ''absurd,'' according to Bernard Roth, a
professor in Stanford's Department of Mechanical Engineeering.
    ''Guys in the U.S. who know something about it (robotics) learned
from the Russians,'' he said. Potential military applications are
''very small. ... I don't think anyone will win a war on the basis of
those machines. It's certainly not of critical national interest.''
    He added that nothing is being done in the field that the Soviets
''either don't already know or can easily figure out for themselves.''
    In refusing to honor the restrictions, Stanford Vice-Provost Gerald
J. Liberman said, ''We believe the best interests of American science
and technology are served by open exchanges of university research
activities.''
    He said in a letter to the NAS, ''The campus is completely open; and
the thousands of visiting scholars to campus each year have free
access to any of the university's programs. Even if we had the means
to monitor or police the activities of visitors, such actions would
drastically disrupt the academic environment which is essential in
fostering creative research endeavors.''
    Attempts to restrict visiting scientists are not new, and last
February Stanford President Donald Kennedy expressed ''grave concern''
over federal attempts to apply export controls to academic teaching
and research. He was joined in writing protests to the secretaries of
state, defense and commerce by presidents Marvin L. Goldberger of the
California Institute of Technology, Paul E. Gray of MIT, Frank H.T.
Rhodes of Cornell and David S. Saxon of the University of California.
    Kennedy told the faculty senate earlier this month the universities
had done ''sporadic negotiating'' with some agencies and had had
''skirmishes'' with others.