Fate of Soc Rel 148 Still Unclear; Stauder Says Problem is Political

A meeting of the Social Relations Department faculty yesterday postponed indefinitely a vote to approve Soc Rel 148-149 for next year. The action came at a regular meeting to approve courses for next year.

Further meetings on the issue have been scheduled for next Tuesday and Thursday. Roger W. Brown, professor of Social Psychology and chairman of the department, said that a decision on the course's fate may be reached by the end of next week.

The Soc Rel faculty approved all of the other courses suggested, but separated the radical courses for further discussion.

Brown refused to predict the chances that the course would receive approval, but Jack R. Stauder '61, instructor in Social Anthropology and instructor for Soc Rel 149, said "Judging from the Soc Rel faculty meeting today, it doesn't sem likely that they will approve Soc Rel 148-149 for next year. Most of the faculty expressed deep political hostility towards the course."

Stauder said that he felt most of the opposition to the course has been politically based.

According to Brown, some new facts and arguments about the course were introduced at yesterday's meeting. He said that one faculty member argued that "the course is more of a social movement than a course."

Previous discussion of the course centered largely around the qualification of section leaders and the appropriateness of the course to the Social Relations Department.

At an earlier meeting, the Soc Rel Department had approved a special procedure for certification of sectionmen without specifically approving Soc Rel 148-149. Objections had also been raised against the grading system of the course at that time.

"The longer the discussions go on, the less tenable the technical objections become," he said. He added, "They're left with nothing to attack us on except political issues."