Brimmer Rejects The Students

Andrew F. Brimmer finally picked up the gauntlet this week.

The chairman of the DuBois Institute Advisory Board on Monday addressed himself to the 40-day-old proposals of the Dubois Institute Student Committee and largely rejected them at a hastily-called press conference hours after 130 picketers marched outside Massachusetts Hall in support of the demands.

Brimmer flatly dismissed the DISC conception of the institute as a center with concerns in the black community and official ties with the Afro-American Studies Department.

The only concession Brimmer made the student demands was his agreement that President Bok and Dean Rosovsky should do something about the absence of any Afro Department faculty member from the advisory board.

Brimmer, said he was speaking for the advisory board in his statement.

The coalition's response came late in the week when--in its own statement--it castigated Brimmer for attempting to set up an institute for "isolated, esoteric research."

Brimmer had created "an antagonistic atmosphere between students and the administration," by refusing to meet with coalition members and failing to act quickly on its February recommendations, the coalition charged.

Vivien M. Morris '75, chairman of the student coalition, said that it was indicative of Brimmer's "bad faith" that he had released his statement to the press before sending it to the coalition.

Brimmer would not say whether his statement was prompted by the demonstration Monday afternoon, but his list of ten "decisions and observations" regarding the institute appeared to cut students out of any part in the planning.

Brimmer's adamant response has not ended the duel at 200 feet with the student coalition, but it is the first sign that he is prepared to back the Harvard administration in its concept of a DuBois Institute.