Recommendations

The Faculty Committee on African and Afro-American studies has made the following major recommendations:

* Among black students there is a strong and definite desire for creation of a social and cultural center for black students. Such a center is conceived as something of a counterpart to Hillel House, the Newman Center, or the International Center. It is recommended that the Dean urge all appropriate elements of the University to use their good offices in securing and financing a building and providing continued support to the activities of such a social and cultural center.

* We recommend that the University create a standing Faculty Committee on degrees in Afro-American Studies to develop and supervise a combined major in the field. This degree should be available to students in the class of 1972, and the most feasible way to make such a degree possible is to start the program as a combination of Afro-American Studies and an existing concentration.

* A central point in the Faculty Committee's work should be the establishment of a center for Afro-American Studies. The purpose of this institution would be to provide intellectual leadership, a physical locale and sufficient material resources for consideration of all aspects of the Afro-American experience.

* We recommend that the University establish a co-ordinating Committee on African Studies to oversee the future increase and stabilization of courses in this area.

* At present black enrollment in the graduate school is very small. It is recommended that GSAS make a major recruitment effort, and in addition, that it set aside fifteen to twenty fellowships a year for black students who possess the potential to become scholars of the first rank.

Faculty and administrative review of these recommendations is a matter of urgency. Hopefully, their implementation will also be accomplished as quickly as possible. While our report--as all university committee reports--necessarily uses many unspecific terms and qualifiers typical of institutional language, it would be tragic if this obscured the sense of urgency felt by the Committee and by our witnesses.

We know that the adoption of our recommendations would cost Harvard a great deal of money. However, that is true of nearly all projects and programs. The real issue is one of intellectual and social priorities. We believe that our area of concern should have no difficulty in moving near the top of any priority list. A special fund drive in support of the Committee's recommendations would be a most appropriate step.