Statement From New Committee

Statement of Need from the Committee for the Expression of Faculty Opinion. The Committee is convinced that:

1. The members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, along with all scholars and university professors, have a heavy responsibility to contribute to the public discussion of important issues and to make their conclusions known.

2. This responsibility is, widely and keenly felt. In response to it many members of the faculty have taken an active part in public discussions and, increasingly, a need has risen for a forum where the members of the faculty can join in putting their convictions before the public.

3. The only occasions on which the faculty has gathered heretofore have been the stated and special meetings of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Accordingly a strong impulsion has developed to voice deeply-felt faculty opinions at those meetings.

But most of the members of the faculty also recognize that the expression of positions on matters of public interest is not an appropriate function for the faculty meetings, which are designed to formulate policies pertaining directly to the business of the faculty.

4. A need therefore exists for convocations of the faculty for the free discussion of matters that are of public concern but are not intimate? related to the conduct of classes, research and other faculty business.

Provisional Membership: Kenneth J. Arrow, Department of Economies: Robert Dorfman, Department of Economics; PaulDoty, Department of Biochemistry; H. Stuart Hughes, Department of History; Alex Inkeles, Department of Social Relations; Martin Luther Kilson, Department of Government and Social Relations; David Riesman, Henry Ford H Professor of Social Sciences.