Save this Department!

THE LATEST problems of the Afro-American Studies Department should come as little surprise. A small department with few tenured faculty, Afro-Am has always swayed with the whims of its few affiliates.

With Professor of American Literature and Language and of Afro-American Studies Werner Sollors, the department's chairman, on sabbatical this year, the only tenured member of the department is W.E.B. DuBois Professor of History and of Afro-American Studies Nathan I. Huggins. "Understaffing is not uncommon at Harvard," Huggins told The Crimson, "It's just more noticeable in a small department." Indeed. This year it will offer only three departmental courses.

The department has been hurt by the departure of two of its senior faculty. Eileen Southern, professor of Afro-American Studies and of Music, retired and Glenn C. Loury decided to devote all of his time to the Kennedy School.

According to Huggins, however, two appointments to the department were supposed to be made this year but could not be filled. Certainly the method of tenuring in Afro-Am is of little help. Candidates, must be approved jointly by the Afro-Am department and another department with a graduate program. Also, according to Huggins, appointment searches take more time because the field itself is relatively new.

But the paucity of course offerings in the department this year cannot legitimately be explained away solely by its size. The problem calls for attention from University Hall, not benign neglect. First, the University must smooth the path for joint appointments. There is cause for optimism on this point, as Huggins met this week with Deans A. Michael Spence and Phyllis Keller to work on more effective appointment processes.

Second, the University should consider expanding the department to the graduate level. Harvard reportedly is now considering creating an Afro-Am master's degree program. Such a program surely would stimulate interest in the field.

The status of Harvard's Afro-Am Department is the result of two related vicious cycles. Afro-Am is said to be a legitimate field of study, yet the Faculty claims it cannot find anyone to tenure in that subject. This lack of qualified scholars then is cited as the reason for Harvard not being able to train future scholars. The near disappearance this year of the department demands that administrators take action to ensure its continued existence as a viable and vibrant academic department.