Ed School Committee on South Africa May Offer New Course, Symposia Series

The School of Education's Committee on South Africa may offer a course about contemporary South African problems as part of an over-all effort to educate faculty and students, Lascelles Anderson, associate professor of Education and chairman of the committee, said yesterday.

The committee is considering the course as one of seven means to examine the University's position towards divestiture of investments in companies doing business in South Africa, and in studying South Africa as an "entity"--the politics and economics of the country--Anderson said. He added the committee has a particular interest in the nature and role of Bantu education.

"Whether it is a course, a series of symposia, or a direct inquiry of what the University will be doing in relation to South Africa, [they] are all options we are considering," Paul N. Ylvisaker, dean of the Ed School, said yesterday.

Ylvisaker last May formed the committee, which consists of four faculty members, a member of the administration and three students, in response to a faculty request that the school further investigate issues related to South Africa.

Since last spring the committee's main purpose has been to serve as a "forum for self-education," Anderson said.

"We all were fairly concerned with the South Africa situation," Anderson said, adding that students at the School of Education had also approached the administration asking the school to take a stand on the University's policy as outlined in the April 27 report.

Ylvisaker said the school established the committee because it did not feel in a position to question the University's policy without full examination of the South African situation.

Aggrey Mberu, a doctoral candidate at the Ed School and committee member said yesterday he hopes the committee's programs will help the community "begin to see apartheid not just in terms of removing laws, but in terms of transforming society."

Mberu added he hopes the committee will evaluate the relationship between the U.S. and South Africa through serious research, "not just talks."

Rafael L. Irizarry, a second year student at the Ed School and a member of the committee said yesterday the Committee is "more like an education oriented action, rather than any kind of decision-making group."

Ylvisaker said yesterday the committee, which has met once this year, has five or six possible programs. He added he plans to review the alternatives and submit them to the Ed School faculty for discussion.