LEONARD REPORT

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The May 3 issue of the Harvard University Gazette printed the full text of the Leonard Committee's report on the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research. Next to the name of Prof. Ewart Guinier, chairperson of the Afro-American Studies Department, was a footnote, with the notation below, "Withdrew name after the report was submitted, but has not filed a minority opinion." This is a blatant distortion of the facts.

The Leonard report was never submitted to the full committee for a vote. Within a week after Walter J. Leonard had given the report to President Bok, Prof. Guinier sent Bok a memorandum that was highly critical of it. He asked Bok not to accept the report but to return it to the committee for reappraisal. Prof. Guinier did not "withdraw his name"--he had never officially approved the report in the first place.

There are many serious flaws in the Leonard report. Unlike the original 1969 prospectus for the DuBois Institute, the Leonard report does not provide for any connection between the Institute and the Afro Department, which would fragment the growth of Afro-American studies at this university. It calls for a DuBois Institute that would be isolated from students, eliminating plans for summer research grants for students and taking students off the Board that would oversee the Institute. It eliminates any reference to offering positions as Visiting Fellows to political activists.

These are issues that concern all Harvard students, white and black alike. The United Committee of Third World Organizations has drawn up a twelve-point proposal of its own for the institute, based on the original 1969 prospectus, which deserves our support. We should all express this support to President Bok and members of the faculty. Peter S. Hogness Member of Radcliffe-Harvard New American Movement