New Debate Delays Split Of Soc Rel

The Social Relations faculty will consider proposals from the Sociology and Social Psychology wings of the department concerning a possible departmental split at a 3 p. m. meeting this afternoon.

The Sociology wing will propose that a separate Sociology department be created by July 1. The Social Psychology wing will recommend instead that plans for an interdisciplinary undergraduate department be formulated before any split takes place.

Several members of the Soc Rel faculty feel that the increasing number and complexity of the proposals will make any final decisions at today's meeting unlikely.

Specific questions-about which decisions seem a long way off-include the structure of the undergraduate department, the possibility of an over-arching structure with decision-making authority over all departments resulting from the proposed split, the distribution of funds, and the possibility of joint appointments.

At a meeting of the Soc Rel faculty last week, Harrison C. White, professor of Sociology and acting chairman of the department, and George C. Homans, professor of Sociology, proposed that Social Psychology be abolished as an independent entity after the creation of an autonomous Sociology department.

Social psychologists-who, under White and Homan's proposal, would have had to choose between joining the new Sociology department or affiliating themselves with the existing "physical" psychology department-objected to the proposal on the grounds that they should not be forced to sacrifice their solidarity as a group.

White and Homans then withdrew their proposal because, White said, "It just isn't relevant because the key people were not willing to go into a sociology department."

And, although the debate over the order of events leading to a possible spit is now being given most attention, not everyone in the department is convinced that a split should occur at all.