Group Charges Harvard With Racism

The Harvard/Radcliffe Racial Issues Study Group charged Harvard plays a key role in maintaining social attitudes which "oppress people on the basis of their national origin or color" in a report issued Monday.

The study, designed to "illustrate the depth of racism at Harvard," stated that academic racism and cultural repression plague the University.

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, and Nancy Randolph, special assistant to the president, both declined to comment on the report yesterday, saying they had not had a chance to study it.

The report recommends that Harvard:

* Establish a Third World cultural center;

* Hire more Third World recruitment officers.

* increase recruitment of Third World students from working class backgrounds;

* Establish and extend courses on Asian-American, Hispanic and Jewish-American studies:

* Tenure four additional faculty in the Afro-American Studies department and increase financial support for the department;

* Acknowledge the renaming of the Engelhard Library at the Kennedy School as the Steve Biko Memorial Library;

* Divest of all stocks and holdings of companies and banks that do business in South Africa.

Worried

"What most concerns me is that the recommendations would not be acceptable to the Harvard community as a whole," Peter A. Dale, Adams House senior tutor and a member of the race relations committee formed by Epps said yesterday.

Unfair

The charge that the University doesn't fulfill its responsibility to Third World groups is unfair, Dale said, adding the University spends large amounts of money to make Third World students feel welcome.

"Others will perceive this financial commitment as inadequate," though, Dale added.

Hostility

The report also states that the University's commitment to affirmative action is superficial, and charges the administration with being "hostile" towards the Afro-American Studies department.

"In light of the recent demonstrations, we wanted people to know what Third World students are upset about. We wanted an opportunity to make concrete connections between racism at home and abroad," Aaron A. Estis, one of the editors of the report, said yesterday.

"The main purpose of this pamphlet is to educate the people about the nature of institutional racism at Harvard," Alison M. Brown '80, another editor of the report, said yesterday.

The report, which took six weeks to prepare, will be distributed to all students in the College this week. "We're also going to make sure the press sees it," Estis said.