BOK VERSUS DISC

To the Editors of The Crimson:

We believe that the major sources of conflict [between President Bok and the DuBois Institute Student Coalition (DISC)] are the gradual redefinition of the nature of the Institute, and the gradual exclusion of students from even a modicum of input into the planning and eventual governing of the Institute.

This gradual redefinition of the nature of the Institute culminates in Bok's statement that undergraduates "experience leaves them much less qualified to evaluate the needs of research and graduate training." If the Institute were to be purely a graduate-oriented research center, it might be reasonable for Dr. Brimmer and President Bok to argue that "it would be inappropriate to incorporate undergraduates into the governance of the Institute." However, this was not the original conception of the Institute. From its beginnings, and at least up until several Faculty administration groups began redefining the purposes of the Institute in late 1972 and 1973, the Institute has been designed not only to promote graduate research, but also to invite visiting researchers to come to Harvard, to "conduct a series of extra-curricular seminars for students, both graduate and undergraduate," and to "offer...summer research grants to undergraduates at Harvard and Radcliffe." (Quotes from the "prospectus" of the Afro-American Studies Department's three-year Report-1972.)

What has happened to these University-wide goals of the Institute that would include a number of programs for undergraduates? Why has some of the original conceptions of the Institute been ignored? Who has redefined the Institute? President Bok states that the present conception of the Institute "does not merely represent the personal preference of Professor Brimmer or myself." This may be true, but the present idea of the Institute also does not seem to represent the original conception of the Institute, nor the interests of undergraduates at Harvard or Radcliffe, nor the Afro-American Studies Department.

The gradual exclusion of students from the governing and planning of the Institute is clearly shown by Bok's statement that, "in an Institute thus conceived, it is far from clear that undergraduates should participate in its governance or direction." This view of student participation in the Institute contradicts almost all of the early conceptions of the Institute. The "Report of the Faculty Committee on Afro-American Studies" (January, 1969) states that the "Center should, like the Institute of Politics, have a student advisory board." The Standing Committee to Develop the Afro-American Studies Department reports in September of 1969 that "the Institute will be overseen by a Visiting Committee of the Board of Overseers and a Faculty-Student Committee." The "Prospectus" from the Afro-American Studies Department's Three-year Report (October, 1972) plainly states that the Faculty-Student Advisory Committee "would be responsible for recommending to the Institute the prospective Fellows and Associates for the following year," plus the awarding of summer research grants which would be for undergraduates. DISC has recommended that two undergraduates join with two faculty, two Institute Associates or Fellows, and two graduate students in a committee to organize optional forums, colloquia and non-credit seminars. They have also recommended that students participate in the search for a director of the Institute.

Thus, it appears to us that parts of the original conception of the Institute have been redefined, and that the Institute, which originally would have included at least some student participation, now has absolutely no provision for undergraduate input. Certain undergraduate aspects of the Institute were once considered an integral part of the Institute. Why are they now non-existent? Student input was at one time considered vital to the Institute. Why does President Bok now consider its value to be "unclear"? These are the questions that are at the base of the conflict and which need to be publicly discussed. Douglas M. Schmidt   Rob Gips   for the Cabinet of   Phillips Brooks House Association