Admissions Policy: From Dollars to Doughnuts

The most intriguing theory of Harvard admissions since the "happy bottom quarter" surfaced last month when Dr. Chase N. Peterson '52, dean of Admissions, addressed a group of Jewish faculty members concerned that Harvard might have reduced the number of Jews it is admitting.

With the Admissions Office's announced desire to increase the enrollment of blacks, other oppressed groups and students from the far West, some who might have been admitted in earlier years must clearly be losing out. And with pressure from alumni to keep things quiet, many have suggested that those the Admissions Office is screening out are the potential radicals.

The Guardian, a weekly newspaper from England, recently quoted "a Harvard dean" as confirming this theory with the statement, "You don't see many New York Jews around, do you?"

Beneath Us

Peterson denies this charge. "I could pull out the files of 50 people we wouldn't have taken if we were concerned about polities," he said. "It would be beneath a great university to do such a thing."

Peterson said there is no particular "docket," or area of the country, whose quota of admissions has been reduced. Rather, he said, it is "the doughnuts around the big cities" which are not as successful with the Harvard Admissions Committee as they used to be.

"This is not based on statistics, but merely on my impressions," Peterson told the CRIMSON. "But we now have to be terribly hard on people with good grades from the good suburban high schools-good, solid clean-nosed kids who really don't have enough else going for them."

Peterson said these doughnuts included such areas as Westhester County and Long Island, N.Y., suburban New Jersey, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. When he described these areas to the Jewish faculty members, one stood up and said, "Dr. Peterson, those aren't doughnuts, they're bagels."

Bagels for Lunch

(The Jewish Faculty Luncheon Group, organized about two years ago by Dr. Gerald Caplan, professor of Clinical Psychiatry, is composed of about 50 faculty members who meet about once a month to hear speakers on various issues.)

Peterson did not dismiss the possibility that the number of Jews in each entering class has decreased in the past few years. "We go out of our way not to find out about an applicant's ethnic background," he said, "but a 10 per cent drop is not impossible. There has been a 10 per cent drop in admissions from several traditional areas, such as prep schools."

Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold, Harvard Jewish chaplain, is conducting his own investigation into admissions policy concerning Jews. "Dr. Peterson is an honest man," Gold said. "I heard him and I believe him.However, I am concerned lest these allegations be true, and I am finding out. If my investigation shows that there have been appreciable drops, I will confront the people who say nothing has changed."

Gold would not say how his investigation will proceed. Membership in Hillel, the Jewish campus affinity group, has risen slightly. Total numbers of religious preference cards, filed at registration, are not kept from year to year. Estimates of the percentage of Jewish students in the University range from 15 to 40 per cent. An informal check of freshman registers seems to indicate a decline in the percentage of Jewish students from perhaps 33 per cent in 1972 to 25 per cent in 1974.

Alumni active in admissions, and secondary school college-placement officials, confirmed yesterday that they knew of no attempt by Harvard to screen out radicals. A dean at an Eastern prep school said, "Harvard is one of the most civilized of all the colleges we deal with in this respect." And a spokesman for a small Midwestern school said, "We have had less trouble about politics from Harvard than from any of the others."

An alumnus in one city said, "In our city the Jews dominate the admissions process. So it would be pretty silly for Harvard to try to discriminate."

Even Peterson conceded, however, that if the school and the local alumni interviewers dislike a candidate for his political views his chances for admissions might be hurt. But he added, "We usually know the people we're dealing with and can discount for any blatant prejudices."

Harrick Macomber, retired director of studies at Exeter, said yesterday, "I would say Harvard has taken some of our prime troublemakers in recent years." A still-active placement officer at an equally prestigious school admitted, "If we had a guy here who was wildly leftist, burning down buildings and waving flags, we wouldn't think too highly of him ourselves. We wouldn't write favorable recommendations, and he wouldn't get into Harvard."

Peterson said that 130 of the 1200 members of the class of 1974 are black, Puerto Rican, or American Indian. Another group Peterson said his office is trying to find more of is scientists. Since plans were first made for the enormous undergraduate science center currently under construction north of the Yard, the number of students concentrating in the Natural Sciences has dropped considerably.

"We are losing the 'A' and 'A minus' scientists to M.I.T. and Cal Tech," Peterson said, "and now we're trying harder to keep them."

Peterson said he attributes the lack of political activity this fall to a new attitude on the part of all students. "And we certainly couldn't accept new juniors and seniors."