Faculty Still Split On Urban Studies More Than Year After Wilson Report

Nearly fifteen months after the Wilson Report on the University and the city called on Harvard to make a "serious effort. . . to devise a more flexible program to accommodate the genuine interests of students" in the problems of the cities, the development of an undergraduate and graduate program in urban studies remains at the committee stage.

Because of the disturbances last spring the Faculty committee established "to consider ways to meet the undergraduate interest in urban studies" did not start meeting until last fall, according to John Kain, associate professor of Economics and chairman of the committee.

"We haven't gotten to the point of saying what we want to do and how to put it together," Kain said last week. "We're still trying to sort it out."

He emphasized that the committee-whose eight faculty members include Nathan Glazer, professor of Education and Social Structure, Lee Rainwater, professor of Social Relations, and James Q. Wilson, chairman of the Government Department-" was not established to set up a major, but to consider every possibility, including doing nothing."

Interviews with a number of professors concerned with urban affairs indicate a widespread reluctance to rush into establishing an undergraduate concentration. Edward C. Banfield, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Urban Government, said that he doubts "the legitimacy of the field" and cautions that "it would be very easy to overemphasize it."

According to Banfield, who teaches Government 14?-a survey course on the problems of the city-courses on urban problems should be part of an undergraduate education, but "should not be the main diet. I don't think that kind of thing constitutes a liberal education." he said.

Because of the multitude of problems and aspects that can be classifield under "urban affairs," any attempt to be comprehensive would inevitably fall short. In Banfield's own course a number of experts on different urban problems-including Boston City Councilman Thomas Atkins and Dr. Robert Coles, the expert on the effects of poverty on children-have agreed to lecture.

"You can't train the student to be everything," Banfield said. "I think the fact that the division of labor occurs proves this."

Wilson also says he is wary of an urban studies concentration spreading itself too thin. Instead, he "would prefer people studying cities within the context of an existing disciplinerather than shopping in a cafeteria and putting things on a tray."

Banfield and Wilson

Both Banfield and Wilson would instead emphasize programs in which undergraduates could obtain summer employment in some aspect of urban affairs, similar to the summer intern program of the Institute of Politics. Wilson, also favors the addition of new courses and the formation of a committee to publicize urban courses and to advise students. At that point, he said, "I might consider setting up an urban studies program."

A graduate program in urban studies can take a number of different forms the possibilities of which are still being considered. A committee appointed by Dean Ford in May is re-assessing the doctoral program in city planning-the traditional program in urban affairs-and will present a report to the Faculty Committee on Educational Policy this spring.

According to Francois Vigier, chairman of the department of city planning at the Design School and chairman of the committee, this study was necessary because city planning "has been trying to evolve rapidly, moving away from land use planning into problems of government and economics."

A second possibility would be through the development of the Public Policy Program instituted this year by the Kennedy School of Government. The focus of this program is presently on methods of problem-solving and their application to public administration, but the curriculum could be revised to place more emphasis on urban affairs.