PATRONS OF 149 ...

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

We are Harvard and Radcliffe students, members of a section of Soc Rel 149, and we are concerned by the opposition of the Social Relations Department to a course that has been a valuable educational experience for us.

We have appreciated the opportunity for free expression and personal contribution that this course has allowed us. Soc Rel 149 has called forth a greater commitment and a more positive intellectual effort from us both in terms of conscientious reading we have done and of discussion in section, than most other coursse we have taken at Harvard. The absence of an assigned authority and the presence of undergraduate section leaders has given us a sense of collective responsibility for the direction of the course, the reading and the discussion; it has given us a sense of individual responsibility to our won intellectual growth. In addition, we took the course in order to study radical critiques of American society -- radical in all senses, not merely political -- and we feel strongly that all students should have the opportunity to evaluate these viewpoints.

Both in its structure and in its content Soc Rel 149 is concerned with essential social problems and the course belongs in the Social Relations Department. It addresses itself to specific, valid, and intensively-studied topics, among them racism alienation, and the experience of education.

We urge all faculty members to consider these questions, and their position on the issue of Soc Rel 148/149, before casting their vote next Tuesday. We invite any faculty member to attend the meeting of this section on Monday, from one to three o'clock in the Brooks Parlor, Phillips Brooks House. Gary Welch   Rod Rouzer   Duncan McCrann   Matthew Naitone   W. David McCollum   Thomas LaFarge   Marshall Mittnick   Jon Stolzenberg   Judy Kauffman   Brook Baker   Susan Nichols   Cleveland Bigelow III   Amy Brodky   Sylvia Lester   Ted Rumsey