Center of Controversy

When in doubt, form a committee--that's just what President Bok said this week he would do to investigate the possibility of establishing a campus Third World Center.

At a meeting Wednesday, Bok told representatives of the Third World Center Committee that he would announce by the end of next week the make-up of the committee, which he said would include at least five student representatives from the major minority groups on campus.

Calling Third world students' concerns "perfectly legitimate," Bok said all he "could do under the circumstances was to say the issue would be considered and form a committee," adding, "It's not my practice to set up committees to bury issues."

But some Third World students are not so sure, and several said yesterday they will not allow the Third World Center proposal to disappear in a bureaucratic labyrinth.

"We're not going to sit back and let the Third World Center be pushed under the rug through the formation of a committee," Lydia P. Jackson '82, president of the Black Students Association (BSA), one of the campus groups sponsoring the center proposal, said yesterday.

Jackson added, however, that the committee will be "a positive step" toward the eventual creation of a center, which the Third World Center Committee has estimated would cost $45,000 a year to operate, in addition to building renovation costs.

"We don't intend to allow the University to engage in a tremendous amount of bureaucratic shuffling," Eugene J. Green '80, former president of the BSA, said yesterday, adding, "We intend to follow up on our motivations."

Third World Centers at major universities are not unheard of; Princeton University, for example, established one ten years ago following student protests.

Today, the Princeton Third World Center is alive and well, operating on a $30,000-a-year budget--excluding salaries--provided by the university, Deborah L. Stapleton, director of the center, said yesterday.

She said the center houses a multi-purpose area, a lounge, kitchens, a television room, offices, a library and a reading room--many of the things the Harvard committee wants--and sponsors lectures, seminars and cultural and social events.

"Since Harvard is similar to Princeton," Stapleton said, "I would imagine that there is a need for a Third World center there, too."