Money Shortage, Faculty Dispute May Split Up Soc Rel Department

Lack of money and organizational disputes within the Faculty may cause the Department of Social Relations to break up into two or three independent departments.

The Social Psychology wing of the department, chaired by R. Freed Bales, professor of Social Relations, is initiating the split in an attempt to establish itself as an independent department. The possible division in Soc Rel-the second largest department in the College with nearly 700 undergraduate concentrators-stems from several serious problems that are plaguing the department.

"The department is underfinanced and understaffed," Dennis L. Krebs, head tutor in Soc Rel, said Thursday. "We have a Faculty-student ratio of one to fifteen, compared to ratios of one to five in Economics and one to nine in History. We just aren't getting enough money to properly educate our students."

There have also been serious organizational disputes within the Soc Rel faculty.

"There's no consensus among the members of the department," Bales said Thursday. "Each wing of the department doesn't have enough control over its own policies."

Bales sees the answer to the problem in the various branches of the Soc Rel department-Social Psychology, Personality and Development, and Social Anthropology-breaking up and forming separate departments.

Resource Biting

"We've got to tighten our organization," Bales said. "Other programs are taking bites out of Soc Rel's resources, and the present department doesn't seem to be able to stop them. And the department doesn't seem to be able to make a sufficient appeal to the dean for more financial help."

Bales feels that by splitting off from Soc Rel, the Social Psychology wing will be able to get more money for staff.

"We would be able to define what we need, and hopefully make a stronger appeal to the dean for more funds. Maybe Social Psychology could do a better job of controlling its own destiny than the entire Soc Rel department can."

Krebs agrees with Bales that the Soc Rel department faces serious problems, but opposes the potential split.

Artificial

"I don't think the split is good for undergraduates because it will cause increased specialization," he said Thursday. "I think the interdisciplinary aspects of Soc Rel as it is now constituted are good, because they get away from artificially-determined categories."

Krebs pointed out that in a survey of concentrators last spring, 82 per cent said they opposed the department breaking up into separate wings.

"To solve our problems," Krebs added, "we're either going to have to get more money from the dean or limit the number of concentrators we accept each year. But if the department splits up, the undergraduates are going to lose out."

Many student concentrators in Soc Rel agree with Krebs.

"The Soc Rel department has been a place for students who want a general education but don't want to concentrate too specifically," said J. Lawrence Aber '72, a member of the department's Committee on Undergraduate Instruction. "It's essential that the department stay together on the undergraduate level."

Richard S. Tilden '71, a concentrator in Soc Rel and a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE), agreed.

"The only people who want the split are the senior Faculty," Tilden said yesterday. "Everyone else wants an interdisciplinary program."

"The split brings up the whole issue of specialization," Tilden added. "There has to be a place for students who don't want to specialize at the undergraduate level. Either the Soc Rel Department will have to stay big and allow for interdisciplinary works, or the new special concentrations program is going to have to get sufficient funds to allow a lot of students to design more general concentrations."

'A Real Battle'

Tilden added that the CUE was working to keep the department together. "If the department breaks up, and if the interdisciplinary interests of undergraduates are not met, then there's going to be a real battle here," he said.

The issue will come to a head this Wednesday at a departmental meeting called to discuss the split.