Taking It On The Road

As the only Chicano administrator at Harvard. George J. Sanchez '81, says that Harvard should "triple and even double its support system for minority students once they get to Harvard."

With the percentage of minorities in Harvard's student body approaching 20 percent, the one-year intern in the admissions office says he is "disappointed that the University's administration doesn't reflect the changes in the student body." He adds, "When I was at Harvard. I had no Chicano role model."

From his post within the administration--as an assistant to Jennifer Carey '78 who oversees undergraduate minority recruiting--Sanchez is doing his utmost to improve minorities' perceptions of Harvard. Starting with his own recruitment from his California high school, Sanchez, like Carey, has come full circle in the admissions process. He began recruiting students as an undergraduate, and today continues the search from the admissions office. "From the very start, I wanted to be able to give back to Harvard and the [Chicano] organization what they had had a role in giving to me."

"From the very start, I wanted to be able to give back to Harvard and the [Chicano] organization what they had had a role in giving to me."

Sanchez grew up in a series of working-class Chicano neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles, graduating from a small Catholic high school. One teacher took a particular interest in his career and that the teacher gave him list of six colleges to apply to--Harvard was one. "If it hadn't been for that information, I wouldn't have thought to apply."

Sanchez says that Harvard alumnus also contacted him, thinking he was a football player. "My school was only known for its football," Sanchez grins, adding that the "alumnus took a liking to me anyway."

After he got accepted to Harvard other Chicano undergraduates got in touch with him, and helped Sanchez learned about the University which he had never seen and didn't know a thing about." Sanchez says he was reassured hearing people from similar backgrounds say that "socially I could fit in and find my own home."

Two months after he came to Cambridge, Sanchez went back to California--this time as an undergraduate minority recruiter. Sanchez recruited every year he was at Harvard and as a sophomore and junior was the co-coordinator for the whole Chicano recruiting project. "For Chicanos here at Harvard," Sanchez asserts, "recruiting has always been an integral part of their existence."

While Harvard can only accept "the cream of the crop" from the neighborhoods visited by student recruiters. Sanchez believes the recruiters should also have an impact on the entire community. In addition to supplying Harvard with applicants, recruiters must be the "role models to get the kids to aim for better jobs or even just to continue with school."

Recruiting efforts by Chicano students have shown impressive results; this year the number of Chicano students applying increased by 23 percent. Still, "Harvard must never get complacent about its" recruiting methods since there are always more students to be reached.

Sanchez is currently on a leave of absence from Stanford where he is competing his PhD on the American "outsider"--which includes Blacks, women, Chicanos, and laborers. He came back to Harvard this year to help put his younger brother through college after his father lost his job as a mechanic.

Sanchez says he chose Stanford--where he received his Masters in History last year--because of the facilities for doing Chicano research. At Stanford, Sanchez says he has found many role models including his advisor, who is "one of the best Chicano historians around." Because of the jobs limitations in the East, Sanchez says he plans to stay in California after he receives his PhD to work with the Chicano community from an academic standpoint.

Though his stint as an admissions officer will be short, Sanchez says he will always be concerned with Harvard's progress in minority affairs. The low representation of minority faculty, the canceling of the minority orientation program, and the lack of a Third World center on campus are areas that the University should address, Sanchez says.

Minority organizations within the College are strong, and Sanchez feels that participation in ethnically related activities helps students "keep a perspective on this place." He adds his dancing with a Mexican folk dancing group called Ballet Folklarico de Aztlan is one way he keeps abreast of the Chicano community at Harvard.

Harvard's poor attention to minority issues on campus actually prepares minorities for the real world, Sanchez says, adding that after getting through Harvard where they will come in contact with "the most intellectual, the most powerful, and the most wealthy," they are ready to face whatever "the white society" can put them through.

Even though the deadline for applications has passed, Sanchez says that only one-third of his duties are done. After getting the students to apply, "now we have to get them in and then get them to come." And it is ultimately the role of the recruiters to convince admits that at Harvard they'll be able to fit in and that the University does care about their needs.