Affirmative Action

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Every spring I receive a telephone call from yet another Crimson reporter who asks uninformed questions of a very general nature about affirmative action at Harvard. Subsequently, an article appears each year reporting an alleged disagreement between another University official, usually a Black one, and me over affirmative action. This year your reporter's approach is a bit different--my appointed adversary is Dean Michael Spence of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences--but your reporting is characteristically flawed.

Your inaccurate reporting of my comments in yesterday's Crimson suffested that I disapprove of Dean Spence's efforts to foster increased hiring of minority faculty. I did not comment upon Dean Spence's efforts in prior years to promote affirmative action. On the contrary, I supported his recent efforts, but in doing so, I did not intend to criticize him for failure to take action at some earlier time.

I also attempted to convey my opinion that while the absence of large pools of minority faculty candidates does constitute a real barrier in the short-run, low pools of minorities are never an occasion for failing to undertake long-range tasks involved in increasing the pools. Long-range tasks involve recruiting increased numbers of minority graduate students, and similar measures. Nor should the absence of large pools be used to justify the absence of ad hoc attempts in the short-run to attract qualified minority faculty, perhaps by recruiting them from other institutions. From my own conversations with Dean Spence, this opinion is consistent with his own view.

Where the Minority Student Alliance's report is concerned, I attempted to suggest to your reporter that I do not generally encounter among informed and sincere members of the Harvard community disagreement over the need for larger numbers of minority faculty. Considerable consternation and disagreement exists over how to remedy this problem. Consequently, demonstrating the existence of the problem is less important at this time than understanding it, and proposing useful solutions. The MSA report usefully reminds all of us that agreement about creative solutions, not a renewed demonstration of the problem, is called for at this time. For this reason I applaud what they have done and hope for additional constructive reminders in the future.

In general, MSA and other students associated with the Harvard Foundation have performed a valuable service at FAS. It is regrettable that they cannot depend upon their fellow students at The Crimson to assume an equally constructive and effective approach by accurately and intelligently reporting on affirmative action, on more than one occasion every spring. I also hope that your reporting will involve seeking out the opinions of the numerous individuals who hold responsibility for affirmative action on campus, instead of subtly constructing disagreements between the one or two minority administrators most easily available by telephone. John B. Williams   Assistant to the President