U.S. Defense Secretary Asks Universities for New Cooperation

Washington — Even as many academics impatiently await the end of the Bush administration, Robert M. Gates, the secretary of defense, is offering university presidents detailed proposals for closer ties between his agency and academe, in areas like studying terrorists and China’s military.

In a speech on Monday to the Association of American Universities, Mr. Gates offered warm and conciliatory words for academe, calling it “this pillar of American society.”