Review Committee Issues Study Today Calling for Afro Department's Reform

The Afro-American Studies Department Review Committee will release its report today calling for the University to reaffirm its commitment to the Department and urging that reforms be made in its administration and structure.

The Afro-American Studies Department has, over the past three years, opposed many of the reforms which the Review Committee recommends.

In the 34-page report obtained by The Crimson Friday, the Committee writes that "Harvard should reaffirm in principle and practice that Afro-American Studies is an appropriate and important academic endeavor and that a permanently-established Department of high quality sharing equitably in the resources of the University is necessary."

To achieve this goal the Committee suggests that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences implement six basic recommendations:

* Afro-American Studies should be available as a joint concentration with other undergraduate departments.

* Joint faculty appointments should be used to attract and diversify the Department's staff. Effort should be made to fill the one tenured position currently vacant in the Department, and to add two additional tenured positions.

* The Department's present executive committee should be restructured to include the full-time faculty members in the Department as well as four elected student concentrators. The executive committee shall serve "as the governing body of the Department with the exception of recommending tenured appointments."

* Students should be represented on all Departmental committees. They should have full voting rights except in those matters regarding faculty appointments.

* The chairmanship should be rotated every three or four years among the members of the--Department "in accordance with Harvard practice."

* The W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research should be established as a consortium endeavor with black and other colleges and universities throughout the nation with a serious interest in Afro-American Studies.

The report does not suggest eliminating the optics of pursuing a program of study totally within the Department's selection of courses. The review committee urges that the Department "formulate a curriculum that office's coherent and well-defined range of course work and forms a central conceptual core of academic endeavor relating specifically to the Afro American experience."

Similarly, the review committee does not specify that all new faculty appointments be made in conjunction with other Departments. Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to the president and ex-officio member of the Review committee, said yesterday that it was up to the search committees which will look for new faculty members and Dean Dunlop to determine if joint appointments should be made.

Since the Department was started three years ago, only one degree program has been offered consisting totally of courses offered within its curriculum. Joint concentration has only been allowed when Afro-American Studies was the minor field.

The Department has not made any joint faculty appointments since its inception.

The executive committee presently consists of four faculty members and four students. Under the Faculty legislation of April 22, 1969 which created the Department, the executive committee has the power to hire faculty members.

The Review Committee also recommends that Dean Dunlop converse ad hoc Faculty committees, consisting of approximately five people, to look for the three additional Faculty members. These ad hoc committees should consist of the chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department, plus two Faculty members from other disciplines.

The Review Committee suggests that Dunlop designate the chairman of these search committees.

In September 1969, the Standing Committee on Afro-American Studies--the body initially charged with developing the Afro-American Studies Department--issued a prospectus for the DuBois Research Institute calling for it to be organized in a manner similar to the Kennedy Institute of Politics. The DuBois Institute has remained in the planning stages for the past three years due to a lack of financial resources.

In order to help administer the DuBois Institute, the Review Committee urges that President Bok appoint a University wide committee in coordination with Dunlop and the chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department.

The Review Committee suggests that "the rotation of the chairmanship begin as early as practicable after one or more new appointments have been made and preferably at the end of he 1972-73 academic year."

In a progress report issued last week, the Afro-American Studies Department wrote that it "opposes mandatory joint appointments." The Department stated that it felt that all faculty appointments in Afro-American Studies should be made by its governing body.

The progress report indicated the Department could accept "voluntary and mutually agreed-upon arrangements between Departments."

The Department in its progress report, also opposed joint concentration. It opposed taking away any of the students' power to serve on Department committees. Students now have power to vote on faculty appointments.

In an initial draft of the Department's progress report, released this summer, the Department urged that Ewart Guinier '33, the chairman of the Department, be retained for an indefinite period of time.

For the last three years, Guinier has opposed the appointment of a University-wide committee to administer the DuBois Institute. He has stated repeatedly that any effort to set up a University-wide committee violates the spirit of the Faculty legislation which created the Department. That legislation gave the executive committee the power to run the Institute.

In memoranda submitted to the Review Committee, Martin Kilson, professor of Government, Orlando Patterson, professor of Sociology, and Dean Epps urged that mandatory joint faculty appointments and joint concentrations be initiated. They did oppose student participation on the Department's committees. The recommendations of the Review Committee correspond quite cloudy to those offered last year by Azinna Nwafor, assistant professor of Afro-American Studies.

The Review Committee recommends that a general education course be developed. They also suggest that the Department should have a graduate program, "but its implementation should be deferred until the undergraduate program has achieved sufficient strength and status to sustain" such endeavor.

In order to stimulate interaction between students and scholars with an interest in Afro-American Studies here and at other universities, the Review Committee recommends that the Faculty initiate a "visiting and exchange program for students and faculty" with black colleges and others with a serious interest in the subject matter.

In a letter to President Bok accompanying the report, Wade H. McCree, the chairman of the Review Committee, said "no member agrees with every word of the text, but significantly, no one felt compelled to file a minority report."

Bok said yesterday that he had not had time to consider the report in detail. He indicated that he wasted the entire Faculty of Arts and Sciences to read the report before taking any action.

Bok appointed the Review Committee in October 1971, in accordance with the faculty legislation which created the Department. That legislation called for a review of all aspects of the program in 1971-72. The Review Committee met eight times during the last academic year, soliciting opinions from interested faculty and students inside and outside the University