"There are few calm discussions of sentence structure in Afro-Am," adds Glover. "There's always going to be an issue of social or historical context."

In addition to added social science offerings, many students wish they could discuss more current issues in their classes.

"It's important to study the past in order to gain direction for the future and it is also important to study things we can directly apply to the challenges facing the African-American community at this time," says Angie C. Roberts '94, who says she is very happy with the concentration overall.

Megan E. Colligan '95, a joint concentrator in U.S. History, agrees. "It would be better if they concentrated more on current issues," she say. "I have never gotten to discuss L.A. or segregation versus integration. Those issues are at the forefront." She stresses, however, the overall strength of the department and the quality of teaching.

But far more charged than the desire for more exploration of sociological topics are calls for a political voice akin to that of activists who taught in the early 70s and for a different academic approach, with a more "Afrocentric" slant to class offerings and departmental view points.

"The concentrators are more political than the professors," says Glover. "The major issue that the department has to address is the fact that people expect professors to be political and a lot of the professors are attempting to attack material with less of the rhetoric."

In the field of Afro-American Studies, there is a divide between a so-called "Afrocentric" focus and what Afrocentrists call a "Eurocentric" one.

The issue is a complex one: some call Afrocentric any approach which explores the role of African culture and history in the context of other parts of the globe.

But the most commonly accepted use of the term refers to a body of scholarship and ideology that places Africa at the center of ancient and modern civilization and seeks to explore civilization from a uniquely African perspective.

"We study the whole world-African community in its relationship to others," says Maulana Karenga, who chairs the Department of Black Studies at California State University, North Ridge and is a prominant proponent of Afrocentrism.

He says his conception of Afrocentricity offers an "alternative culture paradigm" to the Eurocentricity of much Western knowledge.

Some students expressed concern about the lack of such an Afrocentric perspective in the department.

"I think at one time people were frustrated with it," says Tracy K. Smith '94, "Some people said they wanted more nationalist texts and more Afrocentric stuff," she says, noting that Harper offered a seminar with nationalist issues this year.

Solomon says he has no problem with the political balance in the department. "The very act of teaching Afro-American studies is political," he says. "The department is political but not polemic or dogmatic. One of the strengths of the department is its determination to stay away from racial ideologies."

"It's quite obvious that Professor Gates, Professor Appiah ... [and others] would not put themselves in the Afrocentrist ideology," Solomon says. "The faculty may lack a professor with that bent, but I don't think that has detracted from my experience. I think it lends more legitimacy."