"The proof is in the pudding: It's an all-whitefaculty," says White. "It's an insult in 1993 tosay there aren't enough qualified people of color.They need to get a grip."

Sarah King, an associate of the Committee onDegrees in Women's Studies, criticizes minorityrecruiting in Expos. Both she and White found theprogram, not the other way around.

"I don't think a bit of affirmative action ispracticed there," says King. "There's ananti-affirmative action. No one is sought out, noone is brought in."

Students and teachers upset with Expospolicies have few places to turn to get a hearingfor their complaints.

Members of the standing faculty committee,which has direct authority over Expos, aregenerally uninformed about specific matters,administrators acknowledge, and the committeemeets once a year for about 90 minutes. Also,several members of the committee, Sommers andadministrators acknowledge, are recruited by thedirector and the associate director.

"The Expos committee does its best toscrutinize," Buell says. "But it listens veryclosely to what the director and the associatedirector have to say."

Offering one example of his and the committee'swillingness to question Expos policy, Buell sayshe brought up the issue of changing the four-yearrule at last spring's meeting. There, thecommittee carefully considered "evidence" anddecided to keep the rule.

What was the evidence?

"A combination of things, including but notrestricted to the judgment of the program directorand the associate director."

Buell says anyone with a complaint is free toapproach his office. But teachers say the deangives little more than a sympathetic ear. Three ofthe department's highly rated teachers haveapproached the administration to complain aboutthe four-year rule, with little response, theysaid.

In addition, three students of Adam D. Schwartzvisited Assistant Dean for Undergraduate EducationJeffrey Wolcowitz in the spring of 1992 to protestthe departure of their teacher. Two of the threestudents said the dean was "not receptive tocriticism." The third student could not be reachedfor comment.

Wolcowitz says he does not recall the specificvisit.

Teachers say the cumulative effect ofthe program's policies and hierarchy has been torestrict the influence of teachers and to limitthe quality and diversity of ideas about writing.

"You don't see a vehicle for getting your ideasput into any kind of action," says Nan Stalnaker,who is in her third year. "You feel like otherpeople are running it. You aren't running it. Ithink I would like to feel much more thatdecisions are arrived at in a way that we areinvolved."

For example, many Expos teachers say the classrequirements need to be re-evaluated, and thatfour essays, with revisions, is too much for onesemester.