A Complaint and More Complaining

Long after members of the student-faculty Commission of Inquiry had decided that Stanlake Samkange, a former lecturer in Afro-American Studies, was out of the country and could not be reached, they found he was teaching across the river at Northeastern University.

Samkange wasn't pleased at what the commission had done in his supposed absence, for it had decided to recommend that a statement challenging the fairness of a grade he gave to a Radcliffe student last spring be placed in her file.

The class was Afro-American Studies 115b, "African History (A.D.)," and Angela M. Leonard '76 received a C, while the other five students all got As or A-minuses.

Although the final form of the commission's statement had not been set, the initial complaint to the commission from Leonard charged that Samkange was prejudiced in his grading by a disagreement he had with Leonard over requirements in the course.

Leonard, the daughter of Walter J. Leonard, special assistant to President Bok, criticized Samkange in her complaint for calling her parents after that disagreement in class.

She said that Samkange was viewing her not as an individual in her own right, but as the daughter of Walter Leonard.

Martin A. Shefter, associate professor of government and the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, said Wednesday that the commission would reconsider the case.

If all goes well, Samkange might just be able to return to anonymity by Christmas.