Faculty Fears Official Stand On Secularity

Many Faculty members fear that the Administration has begun to take a definite stand on sectarian religious matters in the University, one high-ranking Faculty member disclosed last night.

Up to now, this professor indicated, the relationship of religion to educational matters has not been of concern to members of the University at large. Many members consider it "a pity" that it has come up, and hope that "there will be some way of restoring balance."

A similar view was expressed in a letter to the CRIMSON by Jerome S. Bruner, professor of Psychology, who claims that the present discussion has made Memorial Church "a symbol of disunity in the Harvard community." Although he feels that "one can find legitimate and esthetic justification for the view that a Christian place of worship be just that," he "cannot avoid the feeling that matters of sectarian religious doctrine have been put ahead of concern for the Harvard community."

The issue also, he claims, has led to a view that the University has changed policy in this matter, but he asserts his inability to detect any "such change in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or in any of the great graduate faculties with which I have had contact."

In a later comment, Bruner said that "I resent a statement that there is an official faith." In this society of "free spirit of inquiry," he continued, there "must not be an approved dogma."

Whether or not the issue is brought before the Faculty's next meeting in May, he added, will depend on "how it is handled before then." One member of the University asserted that "our only hope is boredom."

Another view of the situation came yesterday from the Islamic Society, several of whose members asserted that "we have no expectation that Harvard stop being a Christian institution." The society is "grateful for the use of PBH," they continued.