Rosovsky Says Original Report On Afro Center Is Irrelevant

Dean Rosovsky yesterday denied that the University has neglected its original pledge of fund-raising assistance to the Harvard-Radcliffe Afro-American Cultural Center.

In 1969, the Rosovsky report recommended that a black student center be set up and urged the University to "use (its) good offices in securing and financing a building and providing continued support to the activities of such a social and cultural center."

Rosovsky said yesterday that it was unfair to refer to the original document as it had been reworked and amended and was not directly relevant to the current situation.

"I still believe every word of it [the Rosovsky report] and regret the closing, for this kind of facility performed an important service," Rosovsky said.

Possible Donors

He said that he personally had given the Center's director, Imani Kazana, names of possible donors and twice raised the issue of the Afro Center's financial straits at committee meetings, to no avail.

Henry F. Colt, Jr., director of University Development, said Monday that his office had conducted one of its most successful fund drives in 1969, which got the Center started, but that nothing else had been done until this year.

Colt said yesterday that he did not have the list of the donors which he submitted to Kazana this year. But Colt said that he was sure there were more than three.

Kazana restated yesterday that Colt's office had given her the names of only three new potential donors. "I had a list of past donors and they gave me the current addresses," Kazana said.

She said the Afro Center's board of trustees faces the options of dissolving the Center completely, keeping the building open and disbanding the Center's programs, or continuing if funds are found, which she said is unlikely.