Brown College's Daily Herald yesterday described Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, as a "self-admitted former Communist" and this morning printed a public retraction, calling the statement "without foundation in fact" and an "inexcusable example of journalistic sloppiness."

Mather said last night that he has not yet decided whether or not to institute a libel suit against the undergraduate paper.

"Here and There," a column written by Jesse Lowen concerning events at other colleges, described Mather as a "self-admitted former Communist" in a discussion of Mather's cancelled speech to a Syracuse University Chapel Banquet and his subsequent speech to over 2,000 in the college chapel Sunday, February 19.

The Daily Herald said Lowen had confused Mather with "a man named Mathews . . . an ex-Communist by confession," referred to in the Syracuse Daily Orange, February 19.

Mather said yesterday, "The excuse is flimsy, but I see how it might have happened that way. I have never been and I am not now a Communist . . . I am especially allergic to allegedly former Communists.