SDS and AAAAS Lash Out At Course on Urban Riots

The African and Afro-American Association of Students and the Students for a Democratic Society attacked a projected Design School course "An End To Urban Violence" yesterday.

"It wants to put down riots themselves, not deal with the conditions that create them," said Leslie F. Griffin '70, president of the AAAAS. The prospectus of the course, "Planning 113b," states that "The American ghetto problem is better known than understood, as riots and continuing unrest demonstrate . . . It is obviously desirable to minimize such effects, to inhibit this kind of violence and to mitigate its impact on our society."

Members of AAAAS will probably attend the course's first meeting Friday. The group made no other definite plans, but will discuss the issue again tomorrow night and vote on what further tactics to pursue.

Leaflet

At a meeting last night, SDS decided to issue a leaflet stating that "students should demand that the course be cancelled." The aim of the course in SDS's words, is 'how to study to defeat the masses of black people who are fighting against their oppressors."

SDS claimed that students taking the course would learn how to contain black rebellions in order to preserve property. The prospectus of the course suggests that city planners might "study the spatial relationships within and between buildings" in ghettos to determine "their effect on the formation and control of riots."

The course has already raised some controversy among Design School Students. Several have threatened a boycott if the course is not changed. Others plan to protest its orientation at the first meeting.