Students Withdraw Discrimination Charge

The three students who raised the issue of racial discrimination in Susan L. Craig's Expository Writing class have decided not to file an official charge with the University, Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, announced yesterday.

Epps declined further comment on the incident.

The students originally protested the reading aloud in class of a story using the world "nigger" to describe a maid.

After complaining to Donald C. Byker, assistant director of Expository Writing, Eugene J. Green '80 wrote a letter to The Crimson urging action and discussed the possibility of writing a letter to Epps requesting an investigation.

The students later decided not to send a letter to Epps, Green said yesterday, because they wanted to settle the complaints on a personal level rather than through an official complaint.

After The Crimson published an article quoting Green's letter, Epps talked separately with Craig, Green and other students in Craig's section, members of Craig's class said yesterday.

Several of Craig's students who disagreed with Green's charges visited both Craig and Epps to voice their support for the instructor, and some tried to talk with Green to clarify the issue, one of the students said yesterday.

After these discussions, Green said he wrote a letter to Craig saying that he wished "the issue had not been blown so far out of proportion."

Wesley King '80, one of the dissatisfied students, said yesterday, "No one was out to get anybody," adding that the students' intention had been to "bring the matter into light" rather than to provoke severe disciplinary action.

He added that the students dropped any idea of official action because they felt "the point had been made."

Ball of Confusion

Craig said yesterday she and students in the class were confused about the charges. "I'm not all that clear myself about this complex issue," she said.

Many students in the class yesterday denied racial discrimination in Craig's classroom. Clay Squire '80 said yesterday, "Mrs. Craig is very imposing and may be intimidating, but to regard this as racial discrimination would be hypersensitive."

Green said yesterday that many of the students in the class do not fully understand the nature of his complaints because he bases many of them on the comments Craig made on cassette recordings about his papers.

King stressed that although the students believe they "received little benefit from the class," they did not mean to call Craig a "racist.