AFRO REFORM

To the Editors of the The Crimson:

The following comment is prompted by The Crimson's lead story, Monday. October 30, re: the proposed reform of the Afro-American Studies Department. Among the reform proposals recommended by the Committee charged with reviewing all aspects of the Department's administration and structure was one designed to stimulate interaction between students and scholars who share an interest in Afro-American Studies. This might best be accomplished, the Committee offered, by initiating a "visiting and exchange program for students and faculty with black colleges and others with a serious interest in the subject matter."

I suspect it will be of interest to the Committee, and perhaps the Department, to learn that the proposal could be implemented immediately if those concerned so desired. For currently associated with the University are three Ethnic Studies Fellows (read: Afro-American History) associated with the Charles Warren Center. As national (Endowment for the Humanities) fellowship winners, each is currently involved in a significant research project on some aspect of the black experience, and each brings a varied teaching and writing background to his fellowship year.

No institution is immune from a degree of duplication of effort; but at a time when the austerity "cry" is becoming slightly cacophonous; at a time when the University is necessarily niggardly in the allocation of its operating monies, it strikes me as moderately irresponsible to read abou: costly recommendations when a more careful reconnaissance of immanent resources could so easily obviate unnecessary expenses. George A. Levesque   Research Fellow in Ethnic Studies,   The Charles Warren Center for Studies   In American History