Word: southern
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Another point of contention raised by some concentrators revolves around the case of Badi Foster, visiting associate professor of Afro-American Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Foster quickly developed a reputation within the department as one of Afro's prime attractions, an opinion shared by Southern as well as Foster's more enthusiastic boosters among the concentrators. An examination of student enrollment in Foster's courses also attests to his popularity; while only eight students took a fall course Foster offered on social policy and modernization, 64 students enrolled in two of his spring courses, Afro...
Rivera cited Foster's experience because his case demonstrates that Afro faculty members "who draw students are not being rewarded." Invited to teach Afro courses under a one-year contract with the department, Foster will not return to Afro next year, despite his explicit request to Southern that his visiting professor contract be renewed. Foster will confine his academic duties to teaching courses at the Graduate School of Education next year, where he also worked this year on a joint program that included the Afro affiliation. Rivera calls Foster's experiences within the department "the Ephraim Isaac case" of this...
...Southern responds to Rivera's charges by saying that the University allows the department a budget that provides for the hiring of only one visiting faculty member per year, and that she promised next year's position to Lawrence D. Reddick, professor of History at Temple University, in March 1976 after Reddick told Southern he could not come to Harvard for the 1976-'77 academic year...
Concentrators often cite the Foster case as confirmation of Southern's alleged lack of committment to attracting as many students to Afro as possible. Observing that only one student in the class of 1980 applied to the department this year as a full-time concentrator (two freshmen will concentrate jointly in Afro), they contend that the policies of Southern do not promote the growth of Afro. The 1977 Concentrators' Report identifies an alleged stress on the humanities at the expense of the political and economic disciplines as a prominent reason for Afro's steadily decreasing number of students. Because Afro...
...dissatisfaction of some concentrators with the current circumstances in Afro does not limit itself to personalities alone. For several years, many students have criticized Southern's alleged neglect of Pan-Africanist perspectives in Afro course offerings, charging that the chairman wants to firmly establish an "Americo-oriented" approach to academic research in the department. Last year's decisions to withhold tenure from Isaac and Pierre-Michel Fontain, former lecturer on Afro-American Studies--both recognized Pan-Africanists--have been attributed directly to Southern's influence, and Afro concentrators Peter Hardie '77 and Bruce Jacobs '77 attacked these policies...