Radicals Bring Brief To Commission

Harvard's radical political groups and the Commission of Inquiry should be good for each other. The radicals give the Commission the publicity it wants, and the Commission gives the radicals an official University outlet for their complaints.

Last week the radicals presented the Commission with an issue that could bring it into prominence as a major force in the University--a detailed brief charging that the Economics Department's hiring policy is politically biased.

The Commission has not yet decided whether to hold hearings on the charge--based on an earlier, less specific complaint signed by SDS, the New American Movement, and the Union of Radical Political Economists--but Commission chairman James S. Ackerman, professor of Fine Arts, said, "This kind of charge is within the jurisdiction of the Commission."

But both Ackerman and Francis R. Lonergan '72-4, an SDS member who helped draft the earlier complaint, seemed to be somewhat disenchanted with the apparently ideal relationship.

Ackerman said that he wasn't sure if the radical groups were sincerely interested in reforming the University through the Commission or "if they just want to show that we're a pawn of the Administration."

And Lonergan, disappointed at the Commission's refusal earlier this month to investigate the allegedly racist teaching of Richard Herrnstein, professor of Psychology, said, "I don't think the Commission will take the challenge we've given them."