This Time

THE FACULTY'S action in tabling the Afro proposal concerning Black Studies was poorly considering and highly inflammatory. All black students are intensely involved in the future of black studies, and most of us have worked or worried over it for a full year.

The basic problem involved seems twofold. First is a failure to communicate between black students and the Faculty. This failure cannot be allowed to continue. The second is a lack of close and honest consideration for black students. In his speech to the Faculty, Professor Rosovsky seemed more interested in defending the integrity and intent of the Rosovsky Committee and of its report than in honestly considering the desperate need for institutionalized communication between Faculty and blacks, or the vital necessity and great value of the black student's participation in the creation of Afro-American Studies at Harvard.

The general lack of both consideration and communication at the most basic level was epitomized when the Faculty chose to postpone action on the Afro proposal in favor of going home to dinner.

One can appreciate their mental and emotional fatigue at the time, but the black students have spent one full year in similar circumstances, expecting action and participation in vain. Perhaps the Faculty members can begin to understand the anger which I, for one, feel.

Black students have no desire to attack or usurp the authority of the Faculty--the Afro proposal in no way contravenes the spirit or substance of the Rosovsky report. We wish simply to have a say in this most vital matter. I for am tired of standing aside while the fate of black studies is decided, and I would urge the Faculty to accept the Afro proposal immediately and put an end to this lack of communication. CLYDE E. LINDSAY