University Yields to Government On Submission of Employment Data

The University is complying reluctantly, and under strong Federal government pressure, with an Executive Order to submit a report of the number of Negroes employed in each department at Harvard.

L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-President, said yesterday that the forms will be sent to Washington by October 15 (about six months late) and will be based on a visual check.

President Kennedy's Commission on Equal Employment Opportunities sent the "compliance report" in March to all companies with at least $50,000 worth of contracts a year from the Government and ordered that the report be completed.

University officials objected immediately to Part III of the form, which requires that all employees be listed by occupation, sex, "and race." The number of employees in "minority groups" is to be listed apart from the total number of employees.

According to the Commission's Washington office, all government contractees agreed to comply with such requests when they signed their contracts and thus have no choice but to complete the form.

"The report will be a tool in the enforcement of government contracts," a Commission employee told the CRIMSON yesterday, implying rather plainly that firms which do discriminate will lose their government contracts.

In a carefully framed reply to the Commission, the University stated last spring that it does not discriminate in its employment practices and never has. Because of the Massachusetts Fair Employment Practices Act, Harvard does not keep any record of the color of its employees and does not desire to do so.

Harvard officials declared further that to keep such records would be an "outrageous invasion" of the privacy of the individual. "The University does not want to label or identify minority groups and thus does not feel justified in establishing such records."

The government form suggested that if no written records were available, a visual check could be made by department foremen. Although Harvard has now been forced to conduct a visual survey, University officials label the procedure "surreptitious, unhealthy, and repugnant to the dignity of the individual."

Harvard's letter last spring told the Employment Commission that the required survey would do more harm than good. One University official said yesterday that "they seem to be throwing a rock into the soup. We're operating peacefully, bending over backwards not to discriminate, and the Government is only stirring things up."

The conclusion of the University's answer to the government requested that Harvard be excused from filing the form. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and several other universities with large government contracts made similar requests.

The answer in each case was negative. Hobart Taylor, Jr., the Committee counsel, told the University that it must comply with its contract commitments by truly following the practice of equal employment and submitting the report.

"The Commission cannot make exemptions in individual cases," Hobart said. "A university's position is not different from that of any other employer."

In view of this answer, the University's personnel office is attempting to complete a survey of Negroes employed by the University. John W. Teele, director of personnel, said yesterday that the job is difficult and proceeding slowly. He expressed some doubt that the October 15 deadline can be met. The original deadline of June 30 was extended when the University protested that many of Harvard's 10,000 to 12,000 employees were on vacation.

Teele said yesterday that a visual check has been chosen because he "doesn't want any names recorded."

Although the form will be completed, University officials have implied that it will be done under protest. They point to the University's long history of non-discrimination and the many programs Harvard has initiated to "help the Negro."

The current President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities is a continuation of a similar commission established by former President Eisenhower. But as a commission official noted recently, "The actions of the present commission have more enforcement teeth in them.