The student Third World Center Organization, which last spring presented the first proposal for an institution to serve primarily minorities, has withdrawn support from the Foundation designed to improve race relations at Harvard.

Previously, the group had backed the "material concessions" of the Gomes Committee's Foundation plan and had described the committee's report as "workable."

No More

But representatives of the organization, whose request for a campus Third World center last spring prompted President Bok to form the Gomes Committee, said last night the group could no longer support the Foundation because it would stress race relations and participation of whites instead of minority needs and Third World student participation.

The Faculty will debate the Gomes proposal at its meeting today, but Faculty approval is not necessary for the Foundation's establishment.

"While diversity and better race relations are worthwhile goals, we support a center that would primarily provide support services for Third World students," Georgia Hill '81, a member of the organization's steering committee, said last night, adding. "We don't think the onus of race relations should rest entirely with us."

No Comment

Bok last night declined comment on the group's withdrawal of support, adding that his position on the proposed Foundation remains the same as the one he expressed in his recent open letter on race.

In the open letter, Bok said he "will advocate support" for the Foundation "if there is genuine interest in this project." He also wrote that he would support the Foundation "nodestly at the beginning but more substantially over time if the effort attracts sustained commitment and achieves constructive results."

LeRoy A. Collins '81, who served as a student representative on the Gomes committee--which unanimously approved the Foundation--"were manipulated into believing that funding was not a problem and that the administration would back it more than modestly."

Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, who served on the Gomes committee, said yesterday. "I think, it makes it more difficult to justify the Foundation if it does not "serve the purposes we thought were important," and that the center "might lead to a climate of racial separatism."

"What we are proposing instead is the formation of a center for racial understanding," which would aim at improving relations between different minority groups and between minority and majority students, Jenkins said.

Despite Jenkins' statement that "majority" students would serve an important role in the proposed foundation, several CHUL members expressed concern that they would feel unwelcome.

Jenkins, however, said an effort would be made to include majority students as well as minorities in positions of leadership at the foundation.

But Kenneth L. Moya '82, the only CHUL member who voted to approve a Third World facility different from the foundation, said last night the facility should be geared chiefly to minority students and issues.

"The House committees at Harvard are predominantly white male, the finals clubs are predominantly white male, and the athletics are predominantly white male," Moya said. "We have to face the fact that white males are not going to feel comfortable in a Third World center," he added.