Afro Backs More Recruitment Of Prospective Black Students

The Harvard-Radcliffe Association of African and Afro-American Students (Afro) endorsed a reversal in this year's decrease in undergraduate admissions by a greater effort in recruitment of blacks by the Admissions Office.

In last night's meeting, Afro also voted to endorse an increase in the number of tenured black Faculty members, particularly in the Afro-American Studies Department, and a rise in the number of black students accepted to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

"Black undergraduates do not hold all the responsibility for recruitment of blacks to attend Harvard," Keith E. Butler '75, chairman of the meeting, said. "Some of the responsibility is ours, but the Admissions Office can also appeal to our particular segment of the general population."

Black Admissions Decline

The Afro endorsements came in response to a 20 per cent decrease in the number of black women admitted to Radcliffe despite an overall increase of 11 per cent in admissions and a 25 per cent decrease in the number of blacks accepted at Harvard.

Only 7 of 117 blacks who applied to the GSAS for the Fall term were accepted and of 749 full professors, only 13 are black. Ewart Guinier, chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department, is the only full professor in the Department, and he will have to step down as chairman in two years when he becomes 65.

Afro also called for a "much more objective critique" of the Afro-American Studies Department by The Crimson's Confi Guide than in previous years.