Blacks Criticize K-School Recruiting

Black students as the Kennedy School of Government yesterday criticized K-School officials for devoting insufficient resources to recruiting minority students.

The complaints, made in interviews, stem from a recent administration decision to replace a minority recruiter with a staff member who will spend only a small part of his time in that area.

Students at the K-School have complained to officials since last year that there is an insufficient number of minorities enrolled noting that fewer than 10 percent of the 300 pre-career students are minorities.

K-School officials created a position of part-time minority recruiter at the beginning of the 1981-82 academic year and hired Thomas P. Sellers to fill the post. Earlier this year, Sellers was promoted to associate director of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, and Ben Gonzales, a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Education was recently hired to replace him.

But the K-School Black Students Caucus filed a complaint over the appointment--which will be announced today--because they say that Gonzales' job description allows him less time for minority recruiting than Sellers had.

Gonzales will be "tied down" with general admission business instead of concentrating on specific recruiting duties. Caucus Co-Chairman Paul Godley said. Godley praised the appointment of Gonzales, a Puerto Rican, to the post, but added that "his assigned duties indicate that he will not replace Sellers' function and this does not address the need for a separate minority recruiter."

Associate Dean Ira A. Jackson '70 confirmed that Gonzales would have more admissions duties than Sellers, but he said that the K-School's commitment to minority recruitment has not changed.

New Responsibilities

Gonzales said yesterday that he would be responsible for general recruiting and research and that minority recruiting "would be done in addition" to his duties. He added that he had not yet had time to analyze minority recruitment and had not formulated any plans.

A K-School official who asked not to be identified said that the role the K-School hopes to emphasize the role of minority recruiters and to reply more on individual program heads for bringing in minority students.

Sellers declined to comment on the new appointment or its ramifications.

Godley, however, said that he was "skeptical" that Sellers' duties would be filled and added that he would await a formal proposal from the K-School on how those responsibilities would be assumed.