Students say they admire the dean's willingness to listen carefully to their concerns and be honest with his response.

"He is certainly not afraid to say if he thinks something is a bad idea," says Dunster resident Marco B. Simons '97, the chair of the Undergraduate Council's Student Affairs Committee, who has worked with Epps.

"But I also think he's willing to work with students on things he might not be too enthusiastic about himself," Simons says.

Race Matters

Epps is striking not only for his style and interest in students but also for his role as Harvard's most prominent black administrator.

"My fundamental contribution, if there is going to be one in the end, will have been to shape the internal life of Harvard College so that it fosters a certain attitude toward race," Epps says. "I believe in racial integration and inclusiveness and a stress on academic achievement."

Epps initially approached his post as dean with the view that he was just another member of the administration and did not have a special position by virtue of his race. He is "a dean who happens to be black," says John B. Fox Jr. '59, secretary of the FAS and former dean of the College.

However, following the crisis of 1969 in which students occupied University Hall, Epps says, "the racial pressure on me was enormous."

Epps says he was forced to acknowledge his role as a black dean.

"Around the mid-'70s, I realized that Harvard was having lots of trouble over race, and if I wanted to contribute as dean I'd better try to get involved with it," Epps says.

He says he was aware that some students have questioned the role he chose for himself.

"The black administrator at other institutions is someone closely linked to and accountable to the black student movement on campus and is constantly battling with the institution," says Epps.

"That is not the role I chose for myself," he says. "There are black students who respond [positively], but I think the great bulk of them must be very frustrated not to have me automatically on their side."

Epps says he has realized, over the last two decades, that his race can be beneficial in mediating between students and the University's administration. "I think in many ways my race gives me certain advantages in dealing with these issues," he says.

"Archie seems to be the arbitrator, the mediator," says Lee Daniels '71, a preceptor in Expository Writing and an associate of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute who has known Epps well since Daniels' undergraduate years. "The voice is always kind of solicitous and concerned, and yet there is a little hint of the psychiatrist in Archie."

The student radicalism of the late '60s provided a unique test of Epps' ability to balance his responsibilities to both the students and the University. Daniels, who was a member of the Association of African and Afro-American Students in 1969, says he understood Epps' role as the link between the administration and the students.