Harvard Anti-Racism Group Outlines 'Aggressive' Policies

A new activist group on campus established by Robert Harper '78 is devoted to "a more diverse collection of students in one coalition," and "will address the issues of desegregation in Boston and institutional racism at Harvard," Harper said yesterday.

The group includes 20 students who met for the first time last Thursday and adopted a program of:

support for desegration in Boston:

support for affirmative action programs on admissions and faculty hiring at Harvard:

expansion of the Third World studies program at Harvard; and,

education of the Harvard community on racism.

"No one in Harvard University has come down and taken a firm stance on racism in Boston." Harper, who helped to organize the December 14 National March Against Racism in Boston, said.

He said, "While individuals like [President] Bok might have condemned the racist violence around the South, when it's in Boston they say it's outside their realm of responsibility."

Harper said that other organizations at Harvard claim to attack discrimination in the University but that "they've failed to bring sufficient pressure on the University to make it bend toward a more democratic institution."

"If there's one thing I hope we'll be it's aggressive," he said.

Harper said the as-yet-unnamed group will include both blacks and whites, unlike the Radcliffe-Harvard New American Movement and the Association of African and Afro-American Students.

Peter S. Hogness '76, a member of NAM, verified yesterday that there are no blacks in the organization, saying. "In the past its stance on racism has been lacking."

Hogness said that NAM should and will take more interest in opposing racism.

Harper said that organizations that are not integrated tend to alienate people at Harvard, and that he would like to see groups like NAM and Afro work together more.

In Harper's organization there are members of NAM, the Organization For the Solidarity of Third World Students and Afro. Harper said the group's diversity is "one of the most critical things about it."