Legal Action

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Some praise is certainly due the Law School Administration for some of the actions taken recently in response to persistent criticisms from groups in the Law School. Unfortunately, there is one area in which the Administration has failed to take decisive positive action. This is in the area of desegregating the faculty. Because this failure eventually will mar any progress made elsewhere by the Administration, we must bring it to the attention of all those who prefer an orderly solution to Harvard's racial problems.

Three new visiting Third World scholars have been added to the faculty this semester. Another three visitors are expected next semester. These six include a Chicano and a Black woman (the first), both of whom received one year appointments. In addition, a Black woman was recently made Director of Financial Aid, a welcome addition to the Law School's previously all white executive level staff.

Third World people have not been the only beneficiaries of this aroused consciousness at the Law School. One white woman professor has been tenured, raising the number of tenured white women to two. Four other white women have been offered one year faculty appointments. Indeed it would appear that white males themselves who do not meet the traditional Ivy League-Law Review-Supreme Court Clerkship criteria are benefiting from this new-found enlightenment floating within our dear old walls of ivy. We are pleased to see that the faculty is beginning to realize that there are many good professors who do not meet the usual standard.

We recognize all of the progressive steps which have been taken by the Law School. However, we are not satisfied. Short-term and part-time appointments do not change the complexion of the Law School's tenured faculty. We are acutely aware that short-term palliatives simply do not resolve the fundamental problem of the legacy of de facto racial exclusion in tenured faculty appointments at Harvard and most other law schools.

The Law School will be making a terrible mistake if it is under the impression that these actions will break the recent wave of student activism. It would also be dangerous for it to assume from the silence so far this year that student activism is on the wane. Already 1Ls and 2Ls are experiencing the contradictions and hypocrisies in the pronouncements and actions of the Harvard Law School Administration. They are learning rapidly. The Law School still has time. We are watching and waiting. Ibrahm Gassama, Third World Coalition   Muhammad Kenyatta, president, 1982-83 Harvard BLSA   Tony Thompson, President, 1983-84 Harvard BLSA   Donald Christopher Tyler, Black Student Coalition of Harvard University