Despite Soc Sci 5's well publicized difficulties, the general faculty feeling is that these difficulties are only transitional and can be explained, to use the phrase of one professor, "by exogenous factors." The exogenous factors cited by some faculty members include:

* The feeling that Black Power advocates would tend to reject anything that appears to be a creation of whites;

A Strange Method?

* The unfamiliarity of black freshmen with the simple mechanics of a Harvard course, the manner in which material gradually unfolds, the reluctance to use any current material ("the bang-bang stuff") until the second term;

* And even the worsening weather, the onset of winter, was cited as a factor that might have contributed to the generally tense situation of the past few weeks.

On the administrative level, however, the success of the course is not assumed.

"If this course fails," said one key man, "it would hurt the prospects for future black courses. There is great concern over demonstrations against the course, fear that an attempt will be made to close it down. The administrators are trying to face all possibilities realistically--but it's possible that by being so concerned with developing antidotes, we're actually helping to create some of the symptoms. Particularly worrisome is the possibility of a picket line which students, and perhaps even Freidel, would not cross."

Even the most outspoken critics of the course, however, do not now envision the possibility of demonstrations.

"If we protest for any adjustments in the course," says Ray Hammond, '70, "it will not be in the form of a disruption. Any legitimate adjustments can be made easily. We're dealing with basically good people, and the relationship between black students and the faculty is direct, not indirect."

Soc Sci 5 is, to use Professor Rosovsky's phrase, "a response to an emergency." And the limited but emotional war waged against it these past few weeks is perhaps important only to the extent that it affects the future of black-experience courses at Harvard.

The Rosovsky committee studying this problem will submit proposals in January. The feeling among committee members and administrators now is that the proposals will not lead to a Concentration in Afro-American Studies. Rosovky's current thinking: "It is more important to introduce the Afro-American experience into the general curriculum."

Every bit as important as the committee's recommendations will be the black students' reactions. And that must be a question mark.

'Afraid of Harvard'

"These students are afraid of Harvard," observed one committee member, "and Harvard is afraid of them. Both are suspicious. And it's going to get worse. I sympathize with the black militants but this is a harmful phenomenon; it is both destructive and polarizing. It's a reflection of what's going on now, a reflection of the militancy of society as a whole. At this moment we're fighting a holding action."

Similar concern was expressed by committee member Alan Heimert, Master of Eliot House:

"If the wisdom of the black students is for total separation, the crunch will come.