Frosh Get Required Reading

In an attempt to increase intercultural awareness among incoming first years, the Class of 1997 has been assigned summer reading on diversity and will be required to attend sessions to discuss it, Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said yesterday.

The reading, which is being sent to students as part of a publication called the Harvard College News, consists of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dubois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr., President Neil L. Rudenstine and Faye Chiu '95, Epps said.

Proctor groups will spend two hours discussing the essays on September 18 with Faculty members, he said. About 60 Faculty members are needed to conduct the discussions, and 30 professors--all of them nominees for the Levenson Undergraduate Teaching Prize or members of house common rooms--have already agreed to participate.

First-year students will also be required to attend a follow-up session about one month into the fall semester for more discussion of the readings.

Epps, who recently completed his first year as the College's race relations czar, said the readings and discussion sessions were an important part of the administration's effort to improve race relations on campus. The essays, the dean said, touch on four themes that he considers vital in a diverse academic community: the individual, freedom, diversity and community. "The discussions are meant to take place outside and be a period of quiet reflection on some serious writings," Epps said.

The reading and discussions are designed as a preemptive strike against racial tensions in the College. This spring, minority student groups released a flyer labeling Harvard "the Peculiar Institution"--a reference to slavery--and demanding greater Faculty diversity and more opportunities for minority students to make their voices heard.

Some more conservative faculty members and students, including editors of the campus magazine Salient, have expressed concern that College-mandated discussions of diversity might focus too heavily on liberal viewpoints.

But Epps said the essays do not put forth any agenda and that he wants faculty members of various political persuasions to lead the discussions. At the same time, the dean acknowledges that the essays reflect his view that racial separatism is extremely damaging to the college community.

"We're trying to signal to the freshmen that this diversity at Harvard should support an emphasis on the individual which is free of separate ethnic developments," Epps said.

The essays are: "Self-Reliance" by Emerson. "The Ethics of Identity" by Gates, a transcript of Rudenstine's 1992 Commencement speech and Chiu's essay. "Masquerade Attired in the Robes of the Woman Warrior," from the winter 1993 issue of Tian, a Chinese-American student magazine.

The Rudenstine speech, an Epps favorite, also was included in the College's handbook on race relations published during the last academic year.

In his essay, Gates argues that racial differences should be perme- able experiences rather than rigid boundaries. Chiu's piece discusses cultural exchange between the East and the West. The Emerson work is a celebration of the individual.

The discussion sessions are scheduled for the same day as a new program called "Harvard Discovery." Under this program, racially diverse groups of first years will follow written instructions that take them to historical parts of Cambridge and Harvard. After that, members of the class will meet at Harvard Stadium to eat a barbecued lunch and watch the football game with Columbia.

"The whole day is meant to take us from diversity to unity as a class and as a College," Epps said.

The discussion sessions are the latest in a series of changes in first-year orientation week. Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans last month said the week has been revamped to give first year greater access to information about concentrations and to accommodate Jewish students observing Rosh Hashanah

The discussion sessions are scheduled for the same day as a new program called "Harvard Discovery." Under this program, racially diverse groups of first years will follow written instructions that take them to historical parts of Cambridge and Harvard. After that, members of the class will meet at Harvard Stadium to eat a barbecued lunch and watch the football game with Columbia.

"The whole day is meant to take us from diversity to unity as a class and as a College," Epps said.

The discussion sessions are the latest in a series of changes in first-year orientation week. Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans last month said the week has been revamped to give first year greater access to information about concentrations and to accommodate Jewish students observing Rosh Hashanah