Bok Receives AAU Approval For Minority Recruiting Plan

A minority recruiting plan for American graduate schools formulated by President Bok received the endorsement of the American Association of Universities (AAU), last week, and Bok is now preparing to present the plan to the federal government for funding.

The plan, approved unanimously by the executive committee of the AAU, would provide more fellowships for the minorities in graduate schools, establish a centralized, inter-university recruitment system and organize summer programs to expose students to graduate schools.

Bok, who conceived the plan during the summer and presented it to the AAU last October, said yesterday he is going to "talk to one or two people informally to find the best government department to ask."

He had planned to ask various private foundations to support the programs, but decided last fall to apply to the government instead, saying he believes the government has more money available for higher education.

Bok's plan and a new recruiting plan at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences both grew out of an appeal last March by Bok and Dean Rosovsky for a review of the entire minority recruiting process at the GSAS.

The graduate school last year suffered about a 32-per-cent drop in the number of black applicants. Other major graduate schools suffered similar declines.

The plan would require about a $2.1 million to provide new three-year fellowships for about 100 students. Additional funds would be necessary to support the centralized recruiting and summer programs.

Bok said the small increase in the number of black applicants to the graduate school this year, despite its new recruiting plan, "prompts more vigorous effort on our part," and added that in talking to other AAU presidents, "it seemed we are all facing the same problem."