Educators Address Problems At Black College Conference

Black educators from across the country yesterday stressed the need for sustained and innovative research programs in black education at the first session of a two-day Black College Conference sponsored by the Joint Center for Urban Studies at the Graduate School of Education.

Conference Director Charles V. Willie, professor of Education, said yesterday the purpose of the conference is "to initiate here at Harvard, and elsewhere, a continuing research program into racism, black education and the education of blacks."

Willie opened the day-long session with an apology for the remarks of two Harvard professors who called black colleges in the United States a "disaster area." Willie called the remark "both insensitive and insulting," and urged the black scholars attending the conference "to set the record straight and tell us how they have done so much with so little."

Willie's apology was apparently directed at an article by David Riesman '31, Henry Ford II, professor of Social Sciences, and Christopher S. Jencks '58, professor of Sociology, published in the Harvard Educational Review in 1967. Riesman and Jencks referred in the article to "these marginal Negro colleges," and predicted that "they are likely to remain academically inferior institutions."

The sessions yesterday also featured presentations by five prominent black educators. The lectures and discussions focused on some of the teaching and learning problems encountered at black institutions.

Shirley M. McBay, professor of Mathematics at Spellman College, spoke on the need to increase black representation in the natural sciences.

McBay said deficient secondary school training and ill-defined college curricula are the primary barriers to black students concentrating in the mathematics and science fields.

McBay also urged the development of a nationwide network for curriculum planning and teaching techniques.

Daniel C. Thompson, vice-president for academic affairs at Dillard University, talked about interaction between black faculty and students, and stressed the importance of the teacher's position as role-model.

Aretha Marshall '77 said she found the conference very beneficial. "People don't give black schools any credit, but it seems they are producing the majority of today's black leaders," she said.

The conference will continue today in the basement of Gutman Library.