[Infowarrior] - Balancing Secrecy, Academic Freedom

[Richard Forno]

Baltimore Sun
September 14, 2013 

Sun Investigates

Balancing Secrecy, Academic Freedom

By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-higher-ed-intelligence-20130911,0,1832502.story

While the main campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is open
and inviting, there is another division of the school that discourages
visitors.

The Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is tucked miles away in Laurel, with
building access blocked by guards. Outsiders enter with an approved escort
for the most part, handing over proof of identity first. Much of what goes
on in there is secret ‹ including some of the billions of dollars in work
the lab does for the federal government.

The lab, and a facility at the University of Maryland in College Park where
admitted National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden once toiled, are two
of 13 university-affiliated research centers doing contractual work for the
Department of Defense in areas ranging from ship design to missile defense.

While the federal government and universities have collaborated since World
War II, universities must balance academic integrity with the millions to be
made in covert projects. Some universities have eschewed classified work
because of the pitfalls; others have publicly bumbled the balancing act.

This week, a Hopkins dean ordered a university professor to take down a blog
post criticizing the National Security Agency, which does business with the
Applied Physics Laboratory. A lab employee had incorrectly claimed that the
post linked to classified material. That led to an outcry from academics who
questioned Hopkins¹ commitment to the free flow of ideas.

Proponents of classified research at universities say it helps the national
good, brings in much-needed dollars and opens doors for students to get jobs
in highsecurity fields after graduation.

But critics counter that teachers and students can¹t tell anyone about the
work, so it won¹t bolster a curriculum vitae. And because the work can¹t be
openly evaluated, it¹s tough to tell if it¹s in the public good.

³It¹s kind of a fundamental belief in American higher education that
research is designed to be shared, it¹s designed to be disseminated,² said
Cary Nelson, an English professor at the University of Illinois¹ flagship
campus and past president of the American Association of University
Professors. ³When you start crossing a line and decide, ŒWell, I¹ll hide
this and keep that secret,¹ the whole fabric begins to unravel.

³Academic freedom is so jealously guarded and vigorously pursued, the denial
of it is a slippery slope,² Nelson said.

Hopkins soon restored the post, and the dean apologized to the blogger, an
outspoken assistant professor in the school¹s Information Security Institute
named Matthew Green.

The episode shined a spotlight on classified efforts by universities,
typically kept in the dark.

Other schools work for different federal agencies, such as NASA or the
Department of Homeland Security. The University of Maryland, Baltimore
County, for example, has a cybersecurity focus and a partnership with the
National Security Agency.

Not all of their work is classified, nor is all of the work done under the
partnerships with the Department of Defense.

Many schools that do classified work, as Hopkins and the University of
Maryland do, say all classified research must be conducted off campus, even
if it¹s only a short drive away.

³When classified research takes place, it occurs off-campus in order to make
a clear distinction between research activity oncampus ‹ where, in support
of academic freedom, there is an open environment with no restrictions on
the dissemination of the results of our research ‹ and the sensitivity to
needs of government and industry regarding certain topics that should not be
in the open,² Mike Lurie, a spokesman for the University System of Maryland,
wrote in an email.

The system sets the classified-research policy for its member schools,
including the University of Maryland.

Other schools expressly forbid the research altogether, including ‹ at least
for now ‹ George Washington University, where a policy states that
³classified research is not compatible with open communication of knowledge²
and therefore, as a general rule, not accepted or performed.

But this spring, George Washington approved a 10-year plan that allows the
university to ³explore modifying² policies to ³allow some faculty and staff
members to engage in classified research.² The plan also raises the
possibility of building a specialized facility for the work on the
university¹s Science and Technology campus in Virginia.

³There is a lot of funding in this area, and we¹re not competitive for that
funding² said Leo Chalupa, vice president for research at George Washington.

³We¹re here, five blocks from the White House, and we¹re big in areas like
cybersecurity and homeland security,² Chalupa said. ³I¹m told by people in
the field that, boy, if we had classified research, there¹s so much more
possibility to get funding and expand these areas.²

It¹s far from a done deal, Chalupa stressed, noting that administrators
³certainly are not going to do something like this without the buy-in from
the faculty.²

A federal-university partnership developed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt during World War II led to scientific breakthroughs ³critical to
the war effort,² according to a 2012 publication by the National Research
Council, including penicillin, jet propulsion, radar and the atomic bomb.

Hopkins¹ Applied Physics Laboratory, established in 1942, was among the labs
created in that effort. Its job was to improve ships¹ abilities to fend off
air attacks, which it did by developing a ³proximity fuze² that boosted the
effectiveness of anti-aircraft shells.

³Onthe basis of that successful collaboration, the government, Johns
Hopkins, and APL made a commitment to continue their strategic
relationship,² a statement on the lab¹s website reads.

In a statement, Johns Hopkins University spokesman Dennis O¹Shea said the
lab has been a ³vital division of the university² and that the school is
proud of its ³accomplishments and contributions, from helping to win World
War II to landing the first spacecraft on an asteroid to sending probes to
Mercury and Pluto.

³In fact, just this week, APL played a key role in the determination that
Voyager 1 is the first human artifact to enter interstellar space,² O¹Shea
said.

On its website, the lab says it has about 5,000 employees, roughly 3,400 of
them scientists or engineers, working on more than 600 programs primarily
for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, NASA and National
Security Agency affiliates.

The 13 university-affiliated research centers, or UARCs, working with the
Department of Defense ³operate in the public interest, and are subject to
strict organizational and personal conflict-of-interest requirements,² Navy
Cmdr. Amy DerrickFrost, a Department of Defense spokeswoman, said in a
statement.

Several of the partnerships, including one with the Center for Advanced
Study of Language, located just off the University of Maryland¹s College
Park campus, came about after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when defense
funding ballooned and language proficiency became increasingly important.

The UMD center, sponsored by the NSA, was founded in 2003 and ³is the first
and only national resource dedicated to addressing the language needs of the
Intelligence Community and the DoD,² Executive Director Amy Weinberg, a
former professor, wrote in an emailed response to questions.

The center also received unwanted attention this summer, after former NSA
contract employee Edward Snowden, who grew up in Maryland, revealed the
NSA¹s massive telephone- and Internet-surveillance program. He worked as a
security specialist at the center beginning in 2005.

Officials there deflected questions about their work at the time.

Weinberg did not respond to a question about how much funding the center had
received.

The 112 people on the research staff do both classified and unclassified
research, she said, and their work has applicability in the everyday world.

For example, CASL worked on ³adult language learning² that can be applied to
education from kindergarten through college, she said.

When forging partnerships, universities are preferable over business
partners, largely because of their independence, Julie Ziegenhorn, a
spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, said in an email.

STRATCOM, as it¹s known, has since October 2012 sponsored a $2 million
partnership with the University of Nebraska that focuses on combating
weapons of mass destruction.

³As a long-term strategic partner focused on these missions without profit
motive or conflict of interest, the UARC functions as an independent,
trusted advisor and honest broker,² Ziegenhorn said.

³The UARC is answerable only to the government customer and has no vested
interest in particular technologies or solutions. The UARC is also charged
with educating scientists, engineers, and lawyers in relevant disciplines
and to advocate government service as a career path.²

Some university-affiliated research centers working with the Department of
Defense do not do classified work.

The Army-sponsored Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of
Southern California does not do classified research but has brought in
hundreds of millions of dollars since its founding in 1999, with a 2011
contract extension through next year worth $135 million.

It combines ³Hollywood, gaming and artificial intelligence² techniques to
³transform traditional military instruction, health therapies² and more,
according to a brochure on the institute. The lab has created virtual humans
that can serve as training video characters, museum guides and practice
patients.

The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology also is sponsored by the Army and does not perform classified
research. The institute, founded in 2002, receives about $9.7 million from
the Army each year for basic research.

In an emailed statement, institute executive director William Peters said,
³The mission of the ISN is to help the U.S. Army dramatically improve
soldier protection and survivability through basic research and
nanotechnology.²

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