Baker apologizes to Stevens for remarks

In an open letter, English Professor Houston Baker apologized to School of Arts Sciences Dean Rosemary Stevens yesterday for comments attributed to him in a Daily Pennsylvanian column that ran last month. In the column, which was written by College junior Mike Nadel, Baker was quoted as making several serious accusations against Stevens. Nadel quoted Baker -- who is also the director of the Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture -- as calling Stevens incompetent and described incidents in which she was accused of being biased against certain ethnic groups and departments. Since then, many SAS faculty members and administrators have rallied in support of Stevens. In yesterday's letter, Baker said he did not call Stevens a racist. He denied any ill intent on his part. "My harshness was a direct result of the frustration I feel about the general status and function of our School of Arts and Sciences within the larger university community," he stated in the letter. Baker suggested an "open, public, 'civil' forum on the future of the liberal arts and sciences at Penn, to be attended by University trustees, administration, faculty and staff." He said last night that he sent this letter "out of my genuine concern for the excellence of the University of Pennsylvania." Stevens said she thinks the forum is an interesting idea because it is in the spirit of the continuing goal of the faculty to build excellence at the University. "There are many important issues to be dealt with in the University," she said last night. "And I look forward to putting this episode behind us and proceeding with the work that needs to be done. But Nadel was not so quick to dismiss Baker's original comments. "I am glad that Professor Baker has made it clear that there was no misinterpretation of his comments on my part," he said. "I just wish that members of the University community felt free to be more honest and vocal about what they know to be the poor quality of Rosemary Stevens' deanship." Nadel added that although there has been a lot of support for Stevens over the last two weeks, there has also been "vocal criticism of undergraduate education coming from dynamic, futurist faculty members all over the University." "Those who say that Rosemary Stevens is either dynamic or future-thinking are being disingenuous, possibly for political reasons," Nadel said.