Diligence Misguided

There is more than one way to kill a cat. The grimalkin of racial prejudice may choke on warm milk as easily as succumb to a brickbat. Unfortunately the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination seems to believe it has, in the Fair Educational Practices Act, the only weapon which can banish the beast. In ordering Harvard to stop requesting photographs with freshman application forms, it serves the letter, but not the ultimate purpose, of the law it seeks to enforce.

A court might construe the photograph requirement as an "inquiry concerning the race, religion, color, or national origin of a person seeking admission" and declare it contrary to the law. But, before the state hails Harvard into court, or, waving a moral banner, brow-beats the University into submission, it should inquire into the real reasons for the "inquiry." It would find that the admissions office does use information from the photographs for discriminatory purposes. Discrimination, however, is in favor of the so-called underprivileged groups whose welfare was the original pretext for the FEPA.

Admission, because the privilege of attending is conferred on fewer than apply, is of necessity a discriminatory process. The College chooses among applicants according to a number of standards. Aside from the criteria of academic and personal fitness for Harvard life, the admissions committee seeks a cultural cross-section which will enrich the University. Thus the great cry for diversity. In order to fulfill this ideal, the office must choose a greater percentage of those who apply from minority groups than from the more homogeneous mass, other factors being equal. This quest for diversity is hampered when means of recognizing differences are abolished. The Indian or Negro would find his chances better, if a picture broadcasts his distinction, than if left to the law of averages. Harvard as a whole benefits from this sort of favoritism.

Photographs also enable the admissions committee to prevent unnecessary friction which this diversity might otherwise entail. It can forestall rooming situations in which instant hostility would prevent eventual acceptance.

A third constructive use of the photographs, according to Dean Bender, is in recalling the applicant to his interviewer, adding to his general personality impression, and personalizing the whole relationship between applicant and admissions office. Committee members want evidence that they are dealing with more than configurations of statistics.

If the Commission Against Discrimination could realize that it should fight prejudice, not selectivity, it would permit Harvard to serve the real purpose behind the FEPA.