Professor Shortage Feared in Afro-Am

Members of the Afro-American Studies Department Executive Committee will meet with President Bok Wednesday in the wake of the announcement by two professors that they will not come to Harvard, Richard B. Freeman, professor of Economics and a member of the committee, said yesterday.

President Bok was unavailable for comment last night.

Franklin W. Knight, professor of history at Johns Hopkins, and Lawrence W. Levine, professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley, both decided last week not to accept tenure in Afro-Am. Nathan I. Huggins, Columbia professor of history, is reported close to declining the position, Freeman and Orlando Patterson, professor of Sociology and another committee member, said yesterday.

Huggins was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Freeman said two Afro-Am professors will be on leave next year, causing a shortage of professors in the department.

Hope

Patterson said, "All is not lost, there is still one major scholar in the country willing to come to Harvard." Patterson refused to identify the scholar.

Dean Rosovsky yesterday declined to comment on the professors' decisions not to come to Harvard.

Chidi U. Ikonne, chairman of Afro-Am, confirmed yesterday that two professors will be on leave, but declined to comment on the impact that the smaller staff will have on Afro-American Studies.

"We failed in our attempt to build a structure in the department and have left it with only one tenured professor," Freeman said.

Told You So

Eugene J. Green '80, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association, said yesterday, "The problem is that the Afro-American Department has chosen to operate in semi-secrecy and failed to consult students before making nominations."

Patterson said students have had input, and that might have hurt the department.

"We have to decide whether we want a serious department or a Mickey Mouse show," he said.

Ricardo A. Guthrie '80, an Afro-Am concentrator, said yesterday, "It is a mistake for the executive committee to rely too heavily on these three people. Levine, Knight and Huggins represent only a small part of what the department is geared to."

Ewart Guinier '33, the only full professor tenured solely in the department, said yesterday the administration has deliberately held up appointments of qualified professors.

"What the administration has done in the Afro-American Department is what they did with Harberger. They have tried to maintain control over the department, instead of letting the people who were qualified to choose make tenure decisions," Guinier added.