A Bad Year For Minority Recruiting

At the beginning of this academic year, the College, Radcliffe and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences had big plans for increasing the size of their minority applicant pools. But a preliminary review of the applications this week indicates that the recruitment plans of both admissions offices may have been an unabashed failure.

The statistics show that while the College's applications on the whole dropped about 3 per cent, the number of black male applicants took a 24-per-cent plunge. Some admissions officers were quick to attribute the decrease to the general economic situation, but others, including David L. Evans associate director of Harvard admissions, said the figures show a slackening of alumni recruiting, which in the past attracted large numbers of blacks.

The final statistics for Radcliffe applications released Thursday reveal a similar situation, but this time it was Chicanos and Puerto Rican women who seem to be shying away. Of the 3360 women who submitted applications to Radcliffe, 313 black women applied--a drop of only two from last year--but applications from Hispanic-Americans fell off 32 per cent.

Again, admissions officers hinted that a lack of vigorous recruiting is the primary reason for the drop. Frank L. Garcia '76, a Chicano recruiter for Harvard and Radcliffe, said this week that there were, in fact, fewer recruiters this year than last--and that although the admissions offices spent as much money this year as last on recruiting, the effort has been "toned down."

The admissions officers are now in the process of choosing the Class of '79 and refused to say this week whether a drop in minority applications will also mean a drop in minority acceptances.

Nobody at the College or Radcliffe this week wanted to talk about the 25-per-cent drop in black admissions over the past three years, but at the same time a minority recruiter for the GSAS was talking and was telling The Crimson that he had given up because his position was "a waste of time."

Phillip T. Gay, specially appointed last spring to the position of minority recruiter, said Thursday he will not continue in his post next year because individual departments' faculty were not supporting him in his recruiting attempts.

His statement provoked Peter S. McKinney, administrative dean of the GSAS, to say that the graduate school's centralized recruiting plan, begun this fall, was unsuccessful and that next year the school will try a new system, this time perhaps without a recruiter.

Gay said the number of blacks who applied this year to the GSAS was even smaller than last year, although he could not cite specific figures.

Gay said the departments' hearts are not in it, that they are not committed to recruiting in order to find more minority applicants. Until they believe, Gay said, the attempt at recruiting will be futile.