The retreat will include a picnic and cookout,as well as role-playing workshops on racerelations.

In the past, critics have pointed to overlapbetween the two race relations structures, butEpps insists they complement each other.

Epps wants to see the two offices develop moreas "consultative bodies to houses." Counteralready conducts about five workshops in thehouses each year, Epps says.

"Each of those offices has a specialcompetence," he says.

Epps praises Hernandez-Gravelle as "a clinicianskilled in racial dynamics and preventionprogramming." He also espouses her philosophy oflow-level prevention of racial conflict, pointingto her concept of race relations tutors and thesix newly-designated race relations proctors.

Epps praises Counter as an "excellentprogrammer" who pioneered learning from successfulracial models from a range of neglected cultures.

"People of color do not have portraits on thewalls at Harvard," says Epps. "There's a riskthere that the students will not feel that thisplace is theirs. They have no sense of ownership."

Epps also praises Counter, who last spring wasembroiled in a controversy with The Crimson witheach side charging the other of racialinsensitivity.

Despite Epps' rhetoric, though, can studentsexpect real initiative or just another round ofhand-waving until the furor subsides? This fall,Harvard will embark on its second attempt in 15years to develop a coherent approach to improvingcampus race relations.

Epps stresses that any analysis of racerelations relies on careful surveys andstatistics--the same methods his 1980 racecommittee used--rather than anecdotal evidencewhich confused much of last year's debates.

The Epps committee reported startlingconclusions which shattered contemporarymisconceptions about self-segregation and racismby whites.

It concluded that the College's race problemscould be traced to undergraduates' distortedperceptions.

"Racism reflects a pattern of behavior orconduct," Epps told The Crimson in 1980. "We didnot find that here. But because of theundercurrent of tension, the environment is loadedwith misperceptions."

The primary source of racism cited in 1980 wasBoston, with student interaction and campuspublications respectively third and fourth.

Student interaction and publications, on theother hand, were at the forefront of last year'scontroversies, according to Epps.