Soc Rel Division Speeded By Inkeles' Resignation

The resignation of Alex S. Inkeles, professor of Sociology, has added steam to the movement of sociologists within the Social Relations Department who want to establish themselves as a separate department.

Inkeles, one of the leading proponents of an autonomous sociology department, announced Monday his decision to leave Harvard for Stanford next fall.

Harrison C. White, professor of Sociology and acting chairman of the Soc Rel Department, thereupon took a leadership role for the first time in the movement for a sociology department. White will present his plan for reorganization of the Soc Rel department at a special meeting of the department faculty at 5 p.m. today.

Under White's plan, the Soc Rel Department-which includes sociology, social psychology, and anthropology-would cease to exist. Some social psychologists would join sociologists in the new Sociology Department, others would shift to the Psychology Department, and anthropologists would shift to the Anthropology Department.

Sociology, psychology, and anthropology would be combined into a Center for Behavior and Institutions, which would replace the present Center for the Behavioral Sciences at William James Hall.

Undergraduates could major in Behavior and Institutions and select courses from all three departments under it. Sociology would not be a possible field of concentration. Those already in SocRel would continue in it.

"The Soc Rel Department no longer has the momentum it once had." White said last night. "It has become so large and complex that if it doesn't split now, it will split in several years anyway, in much less favorable circumstances."

Two groups who have been opposed to a Soc Rel split-graduate students and the department's social psychology wing-will meet independently today before the faculty meeting.

Grad students will meet at 9:30 a.m. in William James 1. Their ten representatives to faculty meetings met with While yesterday afternoon. "This has come upon us suddenly, and we are very disunited." Mary E. Morton, a second-year grad student and one of the representatives, said last night.

Members of the social psychology wing, including faculty members and grad students, will meet at noon in the fifth floor seminar room of William James. Donald C. Olivier, assistant professor of Social Psychology, said last night that "there is no consensus at all on what's good for social psychology or for the people in it."

Senior faculty members like Inkeles, Ezra F. Vogel, and Seymour Martin Lipset have been clamoring for an independent sociology department for several years. Such a department, they say, would attract sociologists to Harvard and would make it easier for sociologists to work with people in other disciplines.

Talcott Parsons, professor of Sociology and one of the Soc Rel Department's founders in 1946, said last night that he is "broadly in sympathy" with the idea of an autonomous sociology department.