Epps Attends Session on Foundation Funds

In a possible indication that College administrators and faculty will take a more active role in the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III attended a tunding meeting of the group's student advisory committee this week.

The student committee met Tuesday night to formulate a list of suggestions about which campus organizations should receive Foundation grants. The Foundation's faculty committee will make final decisions on which campus groups receive grants next week, according to Epps and student committee members.

Student committee members present at the closed meeting, Epps said the faculty committee wanted to be more involved in the grants process.

In the past, the faculty committee has accepted student suggestions without changing them, members said.

"In the tall, the student decisions were pretty much rubber stamped by the faculty," said student advisory committee member Aaron J. Snow '93, "Epps wanted to make it clear that the faculty would be more involved in this season's decisions."

But Epps said he often attends the committee meetings. He refused to comment on the details of the student committee meeting until the faculty committee makes the grants. decisions next week.

Epps, who was named race relations coordinator for the College in June 1992, did not attend the fall grants meeting of the student committee.

Some members of the student committee said they believed Epps's attendance was motivated by a charge of ethnic bias leveled against the committee by the Society of Arab Students earlier this month.

"Dean Epps did indicate that the Faculty would not just rubber stamp the committee's proposals," said SAC co-chair Ouzama N. Nicholson '94. "But I think he was also concerned about the equity of the process."

"There's a question about equity in the grants process, in that some organizations are represented on the committee and some are not," Nicholson added.

The student committee includes appointees from Raza, La O, AAA, the Native Americans Association and the Black Students Association, as well as representatives from the Undergraduate Council and the Radcliffe Union of Students and 10 members elected at-large from the student body.

Epps has talked vaguely about adjusting the functions of the organizations that focus on campus race relations. Asked yesterday about the subject, he said, "Unfortunately, a quarter of what we do is acting against ourselves because of confusion and duplication."

Anna D. Wilde contributed to the reporting of this story.

Epps, who was named race relations coordinator for the College in June 1992, did not attend the fall grants meeting of the student committee.

Some members of the student committee said they believed Epps's attendance was motivated by a charge of ethnic bias leveled against the committee by the Society of Arab Students earlier this month.

"Dean Epps did indicate that the Faculty would not just rubber stamp the committee's proposals," said SAC co-chair Ouzama N. Nicholson '94. "But I think he was also concerned about the equity of the process."

"There's a question about equity in the grants process, in that some organizations are represented on the committee and some are not," Nicholson added.

The student committee includes appointees from Raza, La O, AAA, the Native Americans Association and the Black Students Association, as well as representatives from the Undergraduate Council and the Radcliffe Union of Students and 10 members elected at-large from the student body.

Epps has talked vaguely about adjusting the functions of the organizations that focus on campus race relations. Asked yesterday about the subject, he said, "Unfortunately, a quarter of what we do is acting against ourselves because of confusion and duplication."

Anna D. Wilde contributed to the reporting of this story.