Word: afro
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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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...
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...
Freeman said two Afro-Am professors will be on leave next year, causing a shortage of professors in the department...
...blame does not rest entirely with the students, however. The executive committee which runs the Afro-Am Department rarely met with students, ignored their suggestions, and failed to inform students of the progress of the search, creating an atmosphere hospitable to rumors and panic. Better communication would help head off protests like this in the future...
Levine is qualified for the appointment and, as part of a last-ditch effort to salvage Afro-American studies, may be crucial in the rebuilding of the ailing department. Those who hope for a strong Afro-American Studies Department should not hesitate to seek input into the rebuilding process but should refrain from unsubstantiated attacks. No scholars--Levine, Knight, Huggins or anyone else--could possibly meet every possible objection; ideal Afro-American studies scholars may exist somewhere, but gathering them at Harvard will not occur overnight. These three seem the best hope for the department right now. We urge them...