Students, Officials Meet on Race

In the first of what promises to be a long series of events designed to ease racial tensions on campus, 55 student leaders, tutors and administrators attended a day of speeches and workshops in Boylston Hall yesterday.

The event, designed by Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, and Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle, assistant dean for race relations and minority affairs, involved mostly representatives of the campus media and student minority groups.

Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter attended, as did Professor of Afro-American Studies K. Anthony Appiah, the recently appointed chair of the student-faculty committee on race relations.

Few other professors attended, fact bemoaned by some students who were critical of the dearth of women and minorities on the faculty.

But College administrators appeared interested in focusing more on undergraduate relations. This summer, Epps was tapped to coordinate the College's race relations apparatus, which now consists of Hernandez-Gravelle's office and Counter's Foundation.

Epps has spoken of creating a "vision for the '90s," and his work will likely be to improve the atmosphere on campus while Appiah's committee suggests long-term structural changes.

The "retreat," as Epps dubbed the event, seemed a perfect example of Epps' plan to promote interaction among students of various backgrounds. The event included a two-hour break into "race relations working teams." Participants shared attitudes about multiculturalism: the extent of problems posed by it and the means to achieve a healthy multicultural environment.

In addition to outreach, Epps said yesterday that he wanted "careful work on monitoring racial incidents," an improvement in the relations between Harvard police and students of color and an exploration of the role of a multi-cultural curriculum.

President Neil L. Rudenstine, in an interview yesterday, praised the committee and the conference for providing a forum for students to get to know one another.

"You don't wait for a crisis...before you meet the other people."

Participants said the day was a success but agreed that it is only the first step in a long process.

"Improving race relations is a very large undertaking," said Zaheer R. Ali '94, president of the Black Students Association. "It has to be something people are committed to both short term and long term."