Sizer Denies Racial Slant

In an effort to get the School of Education to hire a Negro professor for its new. Chair in Urban Studies, the Urban League of Greater Boston is circulating a memorandum among Roxbury parent and community groups asking for suggested names of qualified black professionals.

The League will deliver the list to Theodore R. Sizer, Dean of the Ed School, "probably this week," Toye Brown, Education Coordinator for the Urban League and author of the paragraph-long memorandum, said yesterday.

"I don't know anything about it," Sizer said yesterday, commenting on the memorandum and the forthcoming list. But he added that race would not be a consideration in filling the new post, which grew out of the recent Ford grant establishing five chairs in Urban Studies at the University.

"We don't start with a race," Sizer said. "We simply look for a professor."

Dec. Meeting

According to Miss Brown, the search for names came in the wake of a Dec. 22 meeting between Sizer and Representatives of the League, at which the League first suggested Sizer hire a black professor to fill the chair.

Sizer's first comment, Miss Brown claimed, was that thet Ed School does not hire on the basis of race. "His next reason," she continued, "was that he can't find any qualified black professors." She added that she felt Sizer "definitely hires on the basis of race."

Sizer flatly denied he ever said he could not find blacks to fill the professorship. "It's simply not true," the Dean said yesterday.

There are no blacks who are senior faculty members on the Faculty of the School of Education at present.

Dated January 8, the League memorandum refers to the crucial need for a black professor with status at the Harvard School of Education. The list of suggestions includes fifteen names.