Certain Kinds of Views

In a lengthy interview last week looking back on his eight-month rise to controversiality. Richard J. Herrnstein, professor of Psychology, fired back at the protests aimed against him by SDS. "The attacks on me have not bothered me personally," he said. "What bothers me is this: something has happened at Harvard this year that makes it hazardous for a professor to teach certain kinds of views."

But last Saturday, the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities failed to come to Herrnstein's support. After three weeks of deadlocked conferences, the CRR decided against any disciplinary action in the cases of two students who have been among Herrnstein's most aggressive detractors. Herrnstein had pressed charges against the two--Bonnie E. Blustein '72 and Alan J. Garfinkel, a fourth-year graduate student in Philosophy--alleging "intense personal harassment."

Although Herrnstein maintains he is not disheartened by the CRR's verdict, he said that he found some news of the week before much more gratifying. On April 12, President Bok publicly warned that the anti-Herrnstein protests had serious effects beyond the well-being of one professor. SDS's protests threaten to make scholars "turn to more placid subjects where risks are not involved," Bok said.

Meanwhile, Herrnstein has found that the protests directed against him personally seem to have died out. "There hasn't even been a leaflet in my class since the CRR hearing four weeks ago," he said.