The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science met Oct. 10 with university officials from across the nation to discuss the implementation of a "sensitive" category for federally funded and government-owned scientific research.
The sensitive designation would serve as a halfway point between classified and unclassified research.
Sherwood L. Boehlert, chairman of the committee on science, conducted the hearing.
The hearing featured testimony from representatives of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California-Santa Cruz, among others.
The issue was something that Congress felt needed to be identified, said Kathryn Harrington, spokeswoman for the White House's Office of Science and Technology.
According to Harrington, the proposal is still in its formative stage.
"It's not definite that it is eventually going to come to pass," she said.
The sensitive designation of scientific research is something that always has existed, but has not yet been given a formal name, Harrington said.
So far there have not been any decisions or legislation on the category of sensitive research, Congressional Science Committee Communications Director Heidi Tringe said.
"The White House is interested in listening to groups in education and to relative stakeholders" about the new designation, Harrington said.
Haydn Wadley, the University's Dean for Research, said there "needs to be careful review of the situation and for faculty to participate" in the formation of legislation or standards on the proposed designation.
Currently there is no formula for deciding which federally funded cases would be marked as sensitive.
According to Harrington, sensitive research would not be subject to the same standards typically applied to classified top-secret defense projects.
Wadley said she is concerned about the impact that a sensitive research designation would have on the University community.
Wadley said the diverse backgrounds of the University's students and faculty is one of its major strengths.
"Anything that impedes upon this open environment
must be balanced against unique capabilities of security at a time when our nation is under attack," Wadley said.
Wadley added that in time of war, it is not unusual for compromises to be made between national security and the needs of a university community.
"We must understand that war demands secrecy and science thrives upon openness," Tinge said. The issue is about "how a free society can balance those two conflicts"
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