A Department

ALTHOUGH THE VISITING COMMITTEE to review Afro-American Studies recommended that the department be run as an interdisciplinary committee, the University has an obligation to maintain and strengthen Afro-Am as a department.

The visiting committee's report rightly concludes that the problems now facing Afro-Am after a decade of controversy result from the University's lack of commitment to the department and from factions within Afro-Am itself. These problems are not insurmountable.

Changing Afro-Am's status will not lead to a resolution of the issues underlying the department's instablility. As a committee Afro-Am would not be able to tenure its own faculty nor would it be able to develop its own curriculum.

The success of an interdisciplinary committee would rest on its ability to draw on the resources of the entire University community. But faculty with a perspective unique to the Afro-Am Studies department are not now available in the revelant departments of the college. In addition, judging by past performance as well as by affirmative action goals, we can not expect them to be available in the near future.

WE HOPE that the executive committee now governing Afro-Am will be able to fulfill its charge of attracting more tenured faculty to the department. Even though enrollments and the number of concentrators have increased in the last year, more encouragement is needed. Potential faculty have been understandably wary of joining a controversy-ridden isolated department. We urge that the administration put these fears to rest by vigorously supporting the department and the executive committee's tenure search.