UC Irvine-Hitachi Link is Badly Misinterpreted

I was appalled to read Michael Schrage’s fact-void jingoist polemic about UC Irvine’s relationship with Hitachi Chemical Research, “Colleges May Not Want the Role of Economic Booster” (March 12). It is ironic that Mr. Schrage is a visiting research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and divides his scholarship between Michael Crichton and ABC’s 20/20. MIT is one of the archetypal institutional academic complexes which has provided our model.

The first comparable building at UCI was built by an American research firm. Every effort was made to recruit American companies to repeat this model. There was no response. We turned to investors who have wisdom, taste and a long view; the Hitachi building was built on land which was given to UCI for such purposes.

There is no evidence to suggest intellectual theft at any time to date, and I expect none. Humbug is humbug, even in The Times.

It is imperative that we develop a global view of our future which embraces the intellectual cooperation of many nations, which is well demonstrated at MIT, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the adjacent environment to which Mr. Schrage seems blind. He does not advocate the patriotism which I espouse. I am very proud to be an American who is eager to embrace the intellectual communities of all parts of the world and to bring to America a new prosperity in a world at peace. I have no fear that such cooperation will hurt the United States.

The Hitachi enterprise is academic entrepreneurship at its best and follows examples set by MIT and Harvard. Mr. Schrage, study your current environment.

STANLEY VAN DEN NOORT M.D.

The writer is a professor and chair of the neurology department at UC Irvine.