http://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/upimage/VF_I18C_023.pdf

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Part of Letter to President Ketter, April 26,1972

Text

President Ketter:
There are sins of omission and sins of commission.
Your hatchet men have committed while you have omitted.
You have turned your head while:

•

1.

Professor Gayles is terminated in Music
remains)
Professor Gayles cannot go .

2.

Professor David Banks is discriminqated against and denied tenure.
He is eligible and has to get tenure.

3.

Mrs. Eddins was forced out of the School of Nursing.
We demand that she is reappointed immediately as an Associate
Professor with tenure in the School of Nursing. That further
she would have the option to work full-tiMe in the Black Studies
Department.

4.

Black administrators do not have authority commensurate with
the responsibilities with which they are saddled. Consequently,
they should not be asked to respond to questions which are beina
raised today. Responses must come from you.

5.

Once departmental status has been granted to the Black Studies
Unit, it should be authorized to invite an advisory group made
up of specialists in Black Studies and Black students to evaluate
the curriculum, its staffina pattern and its administrative
structure and make recommendations which will be binding.

6.

The University of Buffalo must assume its responsibility bv
workinq at federal, state and local levels to provide adeauate
·support for minority -students in araduate and professional schools.

7.

We are protestina the racist and discriminative acts that have
been bestowed upon the Black student body by racist faculty members
and also demand that immediate actions be taken to alleviate this
unethical an academic practice.

i·

I

(yet Professor Halstead

In conclusion we have demanded the establishMent of a
perpetual dialogue between the minority population of the campus
and the chief administrator of the University. ·O.ur initial efforts
are to resolve immediately the demands as stated. The committee
once established will deal with such issues as, ninority involvements
in the Amherst Campus, minority Civil Service employee's, expanding
internship and training programs, and developinq substantial increases
in the number of minority students in oraduate and professional
schools. The overall function of the committee will be to enrich
and enhance the Black populace at the University of Buffalo.