But members of Third World organizations expressed skepticism that the report’s recommendations would be implemented, especially in light of Harvard’s consistent lack of support for institutional change.

“Third World,” a term that referred to minority students at the time, was a deliberate reference to the 1955 Bandung Conference, where 29 African and Asian nations joined together to promote unity and decolonization, Peter N. Kiang ’80, who was involved in the Third World Center Coalition during his time at Harvard, writes in an e-mail.

“We’ll just have to put pressure on the University to implement them,” former BSA President Eugene J. Green ’80 told the Crimson in 1980. “The University has not shown a willingness to address these problems for years.”

ATTRACTING MINORITY FACULTY

Just as today’s African and African-American Studies department struggles to retain its star professors—many of whom have left Harvard over the last several years—the department faced similar problems back in 1980.

To address this issue, the report proposed that the College intensify its efforts to hire minority staff and faculty.

In an attempt to bolster the Afro-American studies department, then-Dean of the Faculty Henry A. Rosovsky formed an Afro-Am Studies executive committee that sought to strengthen the department in the fall of 1979.

But as the Class of 1980 approached graduation, “all but two chairs remain vacant in 77 Dunster St., the Afro-Am Department building,” The Crimson wrote in its June 5 issue.

In 1980, only Nathan I. Huggins—one of three historians offered tenure to the Af Am department—signed a contract.

The BSA, dissatisfied with the disproportionately low number of black faculty candidates, pushed for a multi-disciplinary committee to increase the number of minority appointments in the faculty.

Partly in response to the BSA, Rosovsky announced plans to investigate potential reasons for the shortage of minority faculty on campus.

MINORITY STUDENT CONCERNS

Coupled with concerns about minority faculty recruitment, undergraduates also questioned the role of minority students on campus.

Responding to pressure from members of Third World organizations, who sought a center that would cater specifically to their needs, then-University President Derek C. Bok formed a committee to investigate this idea.

“We were demanding that if Harvard is going to recruit a diverse student body, it has to feel good for students to be there,” Kiang explains. “That means we have to feel like ourselves, comfortable, strong, like we’re not there for the benefit of others.”