Selection of CIA Officer as Teacher at UC Protested

Appointment of a CIA officer to a political science department teaching post at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was challenged by faculty organizations.

A.E. Keir Nash, chairman of the university faculty’s governing body, the Academic Senate, said Sunday that the hiring of George A. Chritton Jr., a senior-level officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, is being reconsidered because it was made without a vote by the political science department’s faculty members.

Chritton was appointed on recommendation of Dean Mann, former chairman of the department, and Nash displayed a copy of a letter from the CIA in which Chritton was described as a participant in the agency’s “officer-in-residence” program, designed to “enhance CIA’s recruiting efforts by providing an opportunity for experienced officers to serve as role models.”