Word: thernstrom
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Charges of racial insensitivity were brought against Professor Thernstrom by a group of students in Historical Studies A-25, which he co-taught with University Professor Bernard Bailyn. The students claim that certain comments made by Thernstrom during his lectures were offensive to minorities, particularly Blacks...
...students took their complaints directly to the Committee on Race Relations, which will not release details of the charges until a decision has been reached. In fact, very little substantive information has come to light concerning the nature or context of Thernstrom's remarks. The debate is therefore taking place entirely on the basis of a few comments by other students--and lots of innuendo...
That the students have not talked to Thernstrom, and that he still has not been told the exact nature of the charges, are some of the most deplorable aspects of the whole controversy. It reveals one of the fundamental problems which the Harvard community faces: the growing distance between faculty and the student body. The breakdown of communication between the two affects all aspects of Harvard life, ranging from the Houses--as students are well aware--to the tone of academic discourse on campus...
CAMILLE Holmes, president of the Black Students Association, is quoted in The Perspective as saying, "I don't think that the people who filed the complaint saw any other avenue." Why was direct contact with Thernstrom the road not travelled by? Why didn't the students talk to him first? The serious nature of any charge of racism (or even of "racial insensitivity") makes it imperative that these charges are not simply the product of a lack of communication. Professors and students both have to make an effort to understand each other...
BOTH The Salient and The Perspective--as far apart ideologically as you can get at Harvard--have defended Thernstrom in the name of academic freedom. Fruitful debate in the academic community depends on the right to express controversial theories. Nobody disagrees with this. What there is contention over--especially in the Thernstrom case--is how to define the limits of this freedom...