Profile Dean Epps

TWO TOPICS, an emphasis on rigorous academic study and an involvement with the world in ways consistent with scholarly standards, are of prime importance to Harvard's new Dean of Students, Archie Epps. As the successor to a man who was under heavy student criticism since 1968, Epps has spent his first month in the Dean's office listening to complaints and trying to forge a practicable mode for his work. The Dean's office has always dealt with a combination of administrative coordination and student problems, but under Epps, a new emphasis on some controversial topics is likely to lend a very personal character to the-job.

Undergraduates usually first meet Epps when they approach his office with a few typical problems: requests for moving off-campus, all sorts of special room or board considerations, special arrangements for independent study work, and academic problems in general all lead students to see Epps. Epps acknowledges that his office often functions as a complaint bureau; he sees himself as an ombudsman, exercising judgment appropriate to each case. Epps describes his role as a dialectic relationship with students as both "friend and critic." While on the one hand he is the one administration official who accommodates student problems on a personal level, he is also in the position to exercise critical judgment and authority concerning those problems.

Even when students' requests are refused, Dean Epps believes his office can make a positive contribution. During the past month some 350 undergraduates have come to see Epps with specific requests, many of which were turned down. As part of an academic community, Epps believes that he can instruct students who see him in the principles of administration, especially those whose requests are refused. Functioning as a "teaching office" in the concepts of administration, Epps wants to stress his principle of equity: Exceptions are allowable only up to the point that administration of the rule becomes unfair. Adherence to this principle gives Epps a distinct administrative style-exceptions to policies are allowed only within set limits, for if large numbers of exceptions are permitted then new policy is being made. Making policy is not a function of his office, so Epps prefers that such questions be sent to the Faculty or considered by the appeals routes available.

EPPS holds a number of views which give his administrative functioning a personal identity. Primarily, he feels that undergraduates need to face a greater academic challenge in the College-the present four-year program, Epps believes, does not offer enough challenges. In particular, Epps is planning to correct this deficiency in the area of independent study, an area in which he has had numerous conflicts of opinion with students.

Independent study, as presently constituted, has too many gut aspects, according to Epps. His office has very little idea of what people are doing on independent study projects, and he is uncertain whether independent study should be seen as a reading course, a tutorial, or just "a blank check." This year, Epps is asking supervisors to file reports on all independent study projects they are sponsoring, and he plans to ask the Faculty for new directions and new conceptions for the independent study program.

Politics, according to Epps, has no place in the University, Aside from the protection of basic civil liberties, he feels the University has no political obligations-the academic must predominate, so while the University needs to find ways to become involved in world affairs this must be done by means of an orderly discipline of instruction. Epps sees Harvard moving to adapt itself to modern problems by changing the emphasis in existing academic structures and perhaps adding new institutions, but insists that this be done wholly academically, with a disciplinary approach. Explaining this attitude, Epps recalls that Harvard responded to the demands of post-World War II society by developing new institutions such as the Russian Research Center, and that now the University can similarly change to deal with new concerns such as ecology, delivery of medical care, poverty, and minority-group problems.

AS THE highest-ranking black administrator in the University, Epps feels he has a special role and responsibility concerning the black community at Harvard. He tries to take "neutral ground" on political questions and deal only with academic and intellectual considerations. That way, Epps explains, he can show black students that "there is more than one way to go through Harvard: you don't have to be an activist." Another advantage to his neutral position, according to Epps, is that an activist with problems can still have access to the Dean's office. Since the sixty blacks with Corporation appointments represent a wide diversity of political views, and since black students are also very diverse, Epps feels that his neutral position is very realistic. He wants to stress to students that there are a lot of highly individual ways to go through Harvard, and that political activism is not obligatory.

Epps sees a period of serious trouble ahead for the University. Severe financial problems are "just around the corner" and Epps anticipates that political reaction from the Right will pose a major challenge to the University's right to govern itself. The government's reduction of money for pure research and its practice of keeping radicals under surveillance are very dangerous, says Epps, since the government is manipulating the fears of sectors of society. In the event of another major University crisis, Epps hopes that he will be involved in the student circles where decisions are being made; that way, in his role as "friend and critic," Epps hopes that his views will be heard.