"RACIST EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES"

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The immediate response of the Law School Administration to student demands for black workers on the new Law School office building is commendable. Within a week about a dozen black workers will be on the construction site, the result of pressure put on the Vappi Construction Co. by the Administration.

One is led to ask, however, why it is that those with power feel they must wait until pressured and coerced before doing what is right and obvious. As a simple example, why does not the University Administration, on its own, without the necessity of confrontation, take the same action with respect to the Turner Construction Company's work on the tenth house that is has recently taken with regard to Vappi and the Law School building? I have been down to that site several times within recent weeks, and each time I find only one black worker among the 60-70 on the job.

The University has the obligation to insure that it is not the silent partner to racist employment practices in the construction of its present and future buildings. One can also say that it is the University Administration's obligation to act in such a way that students are not required to risk breaking laws and violating University regulations in order to bring about moral and rational behavior on the part of their institution. Chester W. Hartman '57   Assistant Professor of City Planning