Word: students
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Demonstrations this spring, however, were organized in much shorter time, as nostalgia for the tenth anniversary of the student strike of '69 provided impetus to student concern over the department's problems. Representatives from the Black Student Association (BSA), the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee, and several other student groups formed a committee in support of the Afro-American Studies Department in early April. The committee first tried to elicit student support for the department by distributing petitions to the Houses, focusing on two of the department's perennial problems: tenured faculty and funding...
...first part of the petition, summing up the tenuring problem, stated that "although seven candidates have been nominated for tenure in the department, with or without joint appointment, only two have been accepted." The student group called in its petition for the four tenured faculty that two separate visiting committees have said are needed. The department currently has only Eileen J. Southern, professor of Afro-American Studies and of Music, who is on leave, and Ewart Guinier '33, professor of Afro-American Studies, who is semi-retired and only teaches half-time...
...While student supporters of the department gained publicity through their petitions, President Bok arranged with the Student Assembly for an open discussion on University issues. On the topic of Afro-American Studies, Bok said he has been unable to attract well-qualified candidates for tenured positions because the department suffers from a reputation for controversy. Mark Smith '72, the SASC spokesman at the Kennedy School of Government opening in the fall of 1978, responded to Bok at that meeting that the University's consistent lack of support for the department has made it an "anathema" to many qualified professors...
...student committee's petition also noted that the Afro-American Studies Department depends completely on the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (in effect, Rosovsky) for funding. Unlike other departments, Afro-American Studies receives no supplementary funding from bequests to the University. This financial dependence led to students' demand that Afro-American Studies be given priority in the University's current fund drive...
Rosovsky defends his office's funding of the department, saying that despite declining student enrollment in the discipline, its funding has remained constant...