Campus Minority Activism Marked By New Consensus and Organization

The student activism of the 1960s and 1970s is making a comeback this year, but with a twist.

Responding to a nationwide upsurge in campus racism last year, Harvard minority leaders say they have fortified their efforts to define goals and coordinate their actions.

"In order to get the things that we want we [minorities] definitely have to work together," says Carlos R. Perez, Jr. '91, a member of the steering committee of the Chicano group Raza. And Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association President Robert L. Henry '90 says, "We all have a position in an interdependent society and our common future is inextricably intertwined."

Now, everyone is waiting for the imminent release of a report by a high-profile faculty committee. The so-called Verba report, named for committee chair and Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba '53, responds to the Minority Students Alliance's criticism of "complacency" in the recruitment and hiring of minority faculty.

Meanwhile, hundreds of minority leaders from Ivy League and New England campuses will come to Harvard this weekend for an Inter-Collegiate Conference (ICC). Organizers say they hope the four-day summit--coordinated by Harvard students and the Harvard Foundation--will allow groups to pool information and techniques and establish networks.

Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle, appointed last year to the newly created post of assistant dean for minority affairs, will sponsor a week-long College forum on racial awareness later this month.

Yet if minority groups have common ground, they also have separate goals.

American Indians of Harvard (AIH) plans to beef up membership recruitment, says Arnetta C. Girardeau '91. And the umbrella Asian American Association (AAA) will concentrate on an ongoing federal investigation of the College's admission of Asian-Americans, says AAA President Mark H.F. Kuo '90. He says the group also hopes to knit closer ties to graduate school students.

HRBSA, whose plans formed the basis for this week's ICC, will step up political activity, Henry said. Curricular changes highlight a broad agenda.

Raza and the Puerto Rican student group La O are working with University administrators for the appointment of visiting professors in ethnic studies, leaders say.