Concentrators Will Protest Against Faculty Dismissals

Claiming that the departure of two assistant professors in the Department of History and Literature, John M. Potter '26 and Walter E. Houghton, "can only harm the quality of the education of the 150 concentrators," 17 undergraduates in the Department issued a call yesterday for a meeting of all the concentrators on next Tuesday evening in the Kirkland House Junior Common Room.

A letter sent last night to all the undergraduates in the Department announced that a report on the problems of curriculum and tenure raised by the issue will be prepared for the meeting and that some discussion of those problems is necessary.

A committee of seven, headed by Robert Seidman '41, is drawing up the report to be presented at the meeting. They plan, according to Seidman, to bring out especially the factors of the present system of tenure which have led to the dismissal of Professor Potter and Professor Houghton.

"Serious Gap"

"The refusal to reappoint these two men leaves a serious gap in the Department's curriculum, providing no expert tutors in the period from the fall of Rome to the eighteenth century," the letter sent out yesterday stated.

"In History and Literature, where work depends on the tutorial system to a greater degree than in most fields, the dismissal of two men who are among its most able and popular tutors can only harm the quality of the education of the 150 concentrators.

"We feel that those students most affected by the dismissals should meet to consider their effect; and that they should attempt to find some way in which the students can play a greater role in solving problems of curriculum and tenure."

Helping Seidman on the report are William P. Bernton '41, Arthur Kinoy '41, Lawrence Lader '41, Charles S. Bridge '42, Frank Fussner '42, and William M. Thomson '43.

Others who signed the letter are Leo Marx '41, Rufus W. Mathewson, Jr. '41, Laurence A. Brown, Jr. '42, Arsen E. Charles '42, Richard J. Geehern '42, Gabriel Jackson '42, Marc Jaffe '42, Maurice Friedman '43, and Harold Solomon '43.