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Faculty Caucuses Are Still Around

Four months and a summer later, an institution that many Faculty members hoped would disband after the April crisis still continues: the 'liberal' and 'conservative' Faculty caucuses.

The leaders of both groups met over the summer and in the last two weeks have held two general meetings. Both plan to continue weekly conferences.

The caucuses and their disagreement have changed little since the occupation of University Hall.

As in April, the conservative group remains a more cohesive body of about 45-50 senior Faculty and much broader spectrum of views.

"Our members seem to agree with our steering committee," says Robert L. Wolff, professor of History and chairman of the conservative group, "more often than their members seem to agree with their steering committee."

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The unity of the conservative group hints at one of the fundamental sources of disagreement between the caucuses, both last April and now: a difference in style. "Their side really believes more in arranging things in an orderly way beforehand," says John Womack, jr., assistant professor of History "in stream-lining things, managing things." The liberal group seems to prefer public decision-making.

The caucuses' negotiating structure seems to be more formal than before. While the membership of both groups insist that their organization is informal and varies from meeting to meeting, each caucus now has a steering committee of six or seven meetings.

At present, the steering committees are meeting for lunch each Monday to alert their members to potential sources of opposition. So far no formal platforms have been agreed upon.

The conservative steering committee consists of Wilson, Wolff, Andrew Gleason, professor of Mathematies, and

Richard Hernstein, professor of Psychology.

The liberal steering group is larger and less defined. It consists of walzer; John Womack, Jr., assistant professor of History; Roderick Furth, professor of Philosophy; Arthur Solomon, professor of Romance Languages; Wassily Leontief, professor of Economics: Juan Marichal; Cary Marx, assistant professor of Sociology: Gerald Holton; professor of Physics and Martin Peretz, assistant professor of Social Studies.

Conservative members feel that despite the more formal procedure and communication, the boundaries and communication between the groups remains fluid. "My fear in April," says Wilson, "was that the Faculty would be divided into two or three or four bitterly warring factions and create a Berkeley-type situation."

While no such bitter divisions have emerged, the liberals tend to be less enthusiastic in their account of communications between the cancuses. Womack believes that while the steering committees have remained on good terms, "there has been a kind of sharpening of feeling and an accumulating resentment from people in both caucuses."

The substantive issues dividing the caucuses remain ill-defined, since neither caucus has seen the Fainsod Committee report and neither has heard the Administration's formal account of the proceedings of the summer.

But disagreement has begun to emerge over the treatment of what have come to be called the "shadow cases": the four corporation appointees whose nominations President Pusey resubmitted to the departments after the Freund Committee and Joint Committee refused to take disciplinary action against them.

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