Weekend Meeting Discuss Issues In Women's Studies

About 40 participants discussed goals and strategies for implementing a women's studies department and strengthening the position of women at Harvard, during a day-long program held Saturday to celebrate International Women's Day.

The program was sponsored by the Committee for Women's Studies and the Task Force on Affirmative Action.

Women's studies "would mean treating the female perspective on all academic areas as legitimate," Dena Groisser, a member of the Committee for Women's studies, said Saturday. She said women's studies would both signal and encourage a more positive attitude towards women.

The workshop discussions set as immediate goals the education of students and faculty about women's studies and the incorporation into the curriculum of more courses dealing with women.

Long-term goals arrived at in discussions included the creation of a concentration in women's studies, although participants and panelists expressed reservations over how to achieve this goal in light of the current difficulties in the Afro-American Studies Department.

Midway through the panel discussion friction erupted between panelist Delda White and members of the Spartacist Youth League who urged takeover of the University.

White replied, "I've listened to you people make statements for over an hour now and I've failed to hear any solutions."

The need for co-operation between Third World students and women was stressed throughout the program. Groisser said there is a "communality" of all struggles against oppression.

Panelists also discussed the need for closer relations between women faculty, administrators and students, "a lot of the women in the faculty tend to ignore the fact that they are women," panelist Florence Houn, a member of the Task Force on Affirmative Action, said Saturday.