The Social Studies Manifesto

Social Studies faculty this week received two things--a long-awaited report on the state of the concentration, and the news that David S. Landes, Goelet Professor of History, will become Social Studies' next chairman July 1.

The still-unreleased report--prepared by a five-man review body chaired by Landes--lauds the concentration's curriculum and requirements, concentration committee members said this week.

But it also highlights flaws in the concentration's structure. In particular, it criticizes the severe administrative workload required of the chairman, prescribing the creation of one or two jointly held full professorships to spread administrative chores.

And it notes the "dead-end" nature of junior faculty posts in Social Studies, recommending the creation of several junior faculty positions to be shared jointly with another department--a step which would allow junior faculty to aspire to tenured posts in the department.

Most instructors praised the recommendations, but several noted the difficulty of hiring people acceptable to both the Social Studies committee and a department.

Others said the shared junior posts would reduce junior faculty commitment to the Social Studies program. Richard M. Hunt, the program's acting chairman, predicted junior members' "centers of gravity" might drift toward the department where tenure opportunities exist.

But most agreed that Dean Rosovsky and the Faculty Council will soon approve the recommendations; Landes himself noted he accepted the two-year "stop-gap" chairmanship with the expectation that his committee's suggestions would soon become reality.

When they do, the concentration will face the formidable job of finding qualified junior faculty willing to devote at least half their energy to the program.