Afro Center Fund Drive Receives Little Donor Aid

The Afro-American Cultural Center has been able to raise only 6 per cent of its $90,000 fund-raising goal for next years operating expenses.

Imani Kazana, director of the center, said last Sunday that the donor list which produced about $150,000 in 1969 has been exhausted. Donors who had contributed $10,000 in the past are now making $100 contributions, she said. The largest gift thus far has been $400 from the COOP, Kazana added.

Kazana said that the center will exhaust its original $100,000 operating fund by the end of August and may be forced to sell $50,000 worth of securities from its endowment to meet operating expenses.

Kazana said that she is developing plans to cut back on the center's staff, but said that she thought that the necessary funds will be raised.

Kazana, who said in March that the Center had, "people waiting in the wings [to give money]," explained that the center had been depending heavily on their 1969 alumni contributors.

The center was established with the understanding that Harvard alumni would provide sufficient support, she added.

She said the Rockefeller family and other large donors are "just not with us" and that people like the Rockefellers are sending "very detailed, very legitimate letters, telling why they can't give this time, and that they are involved with five other Harvard projects."

No Response

"People just don't feel black projects are as needy now, especially since there are no dramatic expressions of black discontent," she said.

University Development officer Charles D. Thompson said last Wednesday that "perhaps people's priorities have changed." He added that his office has provided the Afro Center with the support it offers all student organizations.

Kazana said the Development Office is "at a loss for an answer" to the center's poor fund-raising results.

Kazana said that the center is presently developing alternative sources of funds. The center is currently sending solicitation letters to the top 100 black businesses in the U.S., the top fifty U.S. banks and insurance companies, Cambridge businesses and churches, and black alumni.

Kazana will begin to bill departments within the University for services provided by the center when she returns from vacation on August 13, she said.

Since there is not enough money in the black community to support all black institutions, since Harvard alumni are not terribly interested in black projects at this time and are committed to other projects, since the center provides goods and services relevant to black students which departments do not provide, and since the Harvard Corporation can't transfer money but can pay bills, we take the position that the departments should pay for what the center provides," Kazana said.

She added that "it is not a question in this day and age of sit-ins--that era has passed--but we will make it clear to them [the departments] that they have a responsibility to the center."

Kazana said that each department will be asked to pay approximately 10 per cent of its budget to the center, because blacks comprise approximately 10 per cent of the Harvard student population.

Kazana said the Afro-American Studies Department has annually given approximately $1,000 to the center. Ewart Guinier '33, Chairman of the Afro department, said yesterday that the department makes no contribution from its budget. He said that all gifts to the center come from money raised by individuals.

The center is hoping that its black alumni appeal will produce a stable group of supporters, Kazana said. She said that a list of 500 black Harvard alumni has been compiled by the center. The center will try to involve black alumni in its activities, Kazana said.

Kazana said that she believes that the center is vital for all students at Harvard