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UD grad questions UDRI military work

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 8:46 PM Friday, August 20, 2010

DAYTON — A University of Dayton graduate told the school on Friday, Aug. 20, that he is concerned it is participating in a military contract to service Minuteman III nuclear missiles, which he said violates Catholic Church teachings.

The Marianist Catholic university said in a statement that it constantly reviews whether its decisions to participate in military research would conflict with Roman Catholic tradition and positions.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote to President Obama in April that the use of nuclear arms “as a weapon of war is rejected in Church teaching,” Eric Timar, a 1990 UD graduate who studied engineering, noted in a letter to UD that the university received Friday. Timar, of Falls Church, Va., asked whether the university reviews federal contract solicitations, before bidding on them, to determine whether they are in line with Catholic moral beliefs.

“Can you please share details of the work?” Timar wrote to Daniel Curran, UD’s president.

The Air Force’s coding for the contract with the University of Dayton Research Institute reads “Minuteman III,” Timar noted in his letter. A UDRI newsletter in early 2009 mentioned that three UD researchers on the “Minuteman III” team had received awards for their work, he wrote.

“We do research,” said John Leland, director of UDRI, part of the university. “We’re not building weapons. We don’t deliver parts for missiles. ... We develop technologies for the intent of defending this country.”

Leland said UDRI tests lubricants, glues and other substances to determine their durability in military use and how that could be improved.

During fiscal 2009, the university did $71.5 million in research for the federal government, involving more than just the Defense Department, the university administration said. The federal money comprised 76 percent of the university’s total research volume that year.

The contract Timar referred to is worth about $30 million over five years, Leland said.

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