THE UNIVERSITY OFCHICAGO 8EECOEDAN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION ISSUED BY THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF FACULTIES VOLUME III, NUMBER 3INTERIM REPORT OF THECOMMITTEE ON UNIVERSITY POLICYFOR BLACK STUDENTSFebruary 17, 1969On April 12, 1968, the Provost of the Universityappointed a committee of faculty to explore problems related to black student life on this campusand to advise the University as to appropriatemeans of solving these problems. The committee,which is now a subcommittee of the Committee ofthe Council, presently consists of Wayne Booth,James Bruce, Allison Davis (Acting Chairman),John Hope Franklin, Chauncy Harris (Chairman),Mark Inghram, Morris Janowitz, Richard Lewon-tin, Charles Long, James Lorie, Charles O'Connell,and Walter Walker (Executive ^Secretary). Messrs.Long, Bruce, and Walker joined the committee inJanuary, 1969. The committee has gathered information concerning admissions, housing, financialaid, special programs, and student life.As a result of its deliberations and fact-findingefforts, and in view of the general increase in interest that surrounds the issue of the black experienceat The University of Chicago, the committee takesthis opportunity to make an interim report. Thecommittee wishes to emphasize that this reportrepresents only the first step in a process of criticalself-evaluation and substantive effort to involve thestudents and faculty of this University in the creation of a university community that encourages allof its members to engage themselves in a wide rangeof scholarly activities.Our report concerns itself with the efforts of theUniversity in the areas of recruitment and enrollment, college preparatory activities, and academicprograms. While we have considered other areas, wewish to place major emphasis on the three abovenamed areas in this interim report.Enrollment and RecruitmentGeneralThe procedures for the selection of students, theabilities and aptitudes sought in prospective students, and the intensity of organized recruitmentvary tremendously between the College, the Divisions, and the Schools. While the College, for exam- CONTENTS / Aprils, 19691 Interim Report of The Committee on University Policy for Black Students6 Honorary Degreespie, has a rather organized recruitment program andsome departments in the Divisions actively recruitgraduate students, other departments have virtuallyno organized recruitment effort. While it is therefore difficult to generalize in this area, the committee feels that certain guiding principles concerning the recruitment and selection of black studentsare appropriate.The committee feels that it is desirable for thevarious component educational units of The University of Chicago to increase the number of blackstudents in enrollment. The aim of our institutionis excellence and it is our assumption that we mustavail ourselves of the widest possible sources of thequalities that contribute to our goal. It is important, therefore, that our emphasis in selecting students should be placed on their individual potentialfor excellence. We are convinced that such traditional guides as achievement and aptitude tests donot fairly demonstrate the potential for excellenceamong many prospective black students. It is ourconviction that additional evaluative measures mustbe employed and that new techniques must be developed and tested to further improve our abilityto identify heretofore untapped potential in theblack student population. The weight to be accordedthese additional measures should probably varywith the academic area involved, but even thisassumption should be subject to experimentation.The prospective student's desire to learn and hismotivation for seeking a University of Chicago education should be given appropriate consideration bythose charged with making admissions decisions.Both can be valid predictors of a student's real potential for success in this University.The University must take positive steps to insureeffective equal educational opportunity. In this regard the recent recruiting program of the College isa step in the right direction. In view of the realproblems of communication between the races andthe lack of educational hope and aspirations at-1tributed to black students in this country, effortsbeyond the dissemination of information shouldgive a high priority to effectuate the principle ofeffective educational opportunity. The committee isaware, for example, of the crucial financial dimension that tends to be a factor in the life of some ofthe black graduate students on this campus. Werecommend that a realistic standard of need beestablished and met as a means of freeing the student, as far as possible, from concerns about subsistence in the University environment. This step isessential to the goal of effective equal educationalopportunity. Efforts to more adequately meet thefinancial needs of black graduate students havebegun to bear fruit. Two hundred fifty thousanddollars have been allocated for financial aid to blackgraduate students over a five-year period. The program in the College that pledges adequate supportfor students is another step in the right direction.The emphasis on potential for success at TheUniversity of Chicago rather than on demonstratedachievement in relation to traditional measures ofacademic potential suggests the need for specialefforts to assist some black students in fulfillingtheir potential. The tutoring services, begun lastyear in the College's basic science sequence, havebeen increased so that everyone desiring such services can now be provided access to them. In devisingthese supplementary services, experimentation andrigorous evaluation are crucial.The following is a summary of the programsthroughout the University which relate to its effortsto increasing the enrollment of black students.The CollegeThe number of black students in the College increased from 71 in the autumn of 1967 to 108 in theautumn of 1968 — 65 women and 43 men; in greatmeasure this increase is accounted for by the relatively small number of black students in last year'ssenior class and the considerably larger number inthis year's entering class (35 freshmen and 7 transfer students). Again, as in recent years, very fewblack students admitted to the College dropped outin the course of their studies, in marked contrast toreports from other campuses.To increase the enrollment of black students inour own College, the Office of College Admissionshas intensified its recruiting efforts. ChristopherScott has joined the professional staff on a part-time basis, and six black students from the Collegewere hired on a part-time basis this fall to travel toschools in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,and Texas. These students, with the help of the regular admissions office staff, wrote a special brochure describing the College and intended for blackhigh school students and their counselors.The College Admissions Office has instituted an"Urban Talent Search," analogous to its successful"Small School Talent Search," in an effort to recruitfor the College the genuinely able youngster froman inner-city school who would, in the normalcourse of events, not consider attending such auniversity as Chicago, even though he has the ability and the personal drive necessary to become asuccessful student here. This program involvesthirty-two high schools in four metropolitan areasPart of the Olin Mathieson Foundation grantwhich the College received last spring is being devoted to an extensive tutoring program for first-yearstudents, black and white, who need assistance inparticular academic areas. In addition, those entering students who would profit from a reducedcourse load have been encouraged to adjust theirprograms accordingly, with the assurance that theirfinancial aid could be extended beyond the usualfour years.The DivisionsAlthough certain departments recruit intensively,there is virtually no organized recruitment of students at the divisional level. Few faculty membersfeel that they can speak with authority for departments other than their own concerning programs,admissions, or fellowships. It is perhaps no surprise,therefore, that efforts to increase the number ofblack students have been more difficult to initiatesuccessfully in the Divisions than elsewhere in theUniversity. As a matter of record the number ofblack students in the Divisions fell from ninety in1967-68 to fifty-nine in 1968-69.To reverse this decline and to encourage blackstudents to apply for graduate study the committeesuggests that the Divisions consider the followingalternatives, among others:1) a series of recruitment conferences on thecampus for faculty members and students fromblack colleges and universities;2) an organized recruitment effort utilizing theefforts of black students and alumni;3) departmental recruitment trips by membersof the faculty to black institutions;4) the development, on the part of our faculty,of recruiting contacts among the faculty of blackinstitutions so that The University of Chicago willbe perceived as a real opportunity for graduatestudy by those who have contact with large numbers of black students;25) the publication of a brochure, written forblack students, to be used both as a means ofachieving a wide dissemination of the University'sdesire to enroll qualified black graduate students,and as a means of supplementing other recruitmentefforts.The SchoolsThere were 87 black students in the University'sprofessional Schools in the autumn of 1967; 119 arecurrently registered. Faculty-student groups haveinitiated vigorous recruiting programs in several ofthe Schools.Graduate School of Business. The GraduateSchool of Business developed in 1963 what came tobe called the Careers for Negroes in Managementprogram, with advice from leaders in the blackcommunity, the Council of the Graduate School ofBusiness, and especially creative assistance fromthe Inland Steel Company. This program becamefully operative in 1964. With the assistance of anumber of major business firms, including generousfinancial assistance, the School has been able tooffer 10 full fellowships annually for black students. Currently, therefore, 20 of the 34 black students — there were 3 in 1962 — in the full-time campus programs of the School are being supported bysuch fellowships, each identified with the name ofthe sponsoring company. Each company also undertakes to provide the holder of its fellowship withemployment in a managerial position during thesummer before he enters the MBA program andagain during the summer before his first and second(final) year. No commitment regarding permanentemployment following graduation is made either bythe company or by the student. Each company isasked to contribute funds sufficient to defray thecost of a full fellowship plus an additional amountwhich supports summer courses in deficiency areasand tutoring during the academic year, if needed.Through their own recruiting efforts on college campuses, the companies also assist the GraduateSchool of Business in identifying prospective students and stimulating applications. The School'sown recruiting program has been broadened to include many colleges with predominantly Negropopulations, beyond those few — Fisk, Howard,Southern, Dillard, and Morehouse — it began visiting regularly in the late fifties. A number of blackstudents currently in residence are expected toassist in this recruiting effort.The committee has been gratified to learn thatthe Graduate School of Business was the pioneer inthis particular kind of effort. It has many imitators, including Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Cornell, Indiana, Wisconsin, Rochester, and Washington University (St. Louis).Divinity School. In 1967-68 the Divinity Schoolhad nine black students; this year it has eleven.Some of these students have been involved in theSchool's recruiting efforts this year, making severalvisits to the predominantly black colleges in theSouth. After Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination last spring, a Faculty-Student Committee onthe Racial Crisis was established to explore ways inwhich the School could act. The recruiting effortmentioned above grew out of the deliberations ofthis committee, as did the offering of a course in theWinter Quarter on "The Black Experience in America: Theological and Cultural Analysis," under theguidance of Nathan Scott, Jr. and Frederick Jefferson. The committee is continuing to meet to explore new ideas and methods.The Divinity School also sponsored the attendance of all eleven black Divinity students at a"Black Seminary and Caucus" at Boston Universityin early November.Graduate School of Education. The number ofblack students in the School of Education wentfrom five last year to eleven this year. The Schoolplans to invite students from predominantly blackschools in the South, selected by faculty at theschools themselves, to spend weekends at the University. The students will meet and live with University of Chicago students, staff, and interns in theMST and MAT programs. This visiting program,funded by the School, is a departure from the technique begun last year of sending a representative ofthe School to various southern Negro college campuses.A second program brought black students fromthe Chicago area colleges and other colleges in themidwest to the campus to acquaint them with theSchool during the Christmas holidays.In connection with both of these efforts, theSchool is experiencing two major difficulties. Because the education profession has traditionallybeen one of the few open to black students in theSouth, there now appears to be an emphasis amongcareer counselors and others at the southern Negrocolleges to emphasize other professions and disciplines for their students. And in some of the northern schools, traditional methods of communicationto students — through career counselors and deans ofstudents — have proved of limited effectiveness inreaching the black student population. Efforts arebeing made to overcome these difficulties.A third effort at recruiting black students, specifically aimed at the so-called "full-time basis substitute" in the Chicago Public Schools, resulted inthe distribution of brochures and other forms of information about the School's programs throughoutthe entire Chicago Public School system. Two orthree teachers applied and were accepted as students in next year's class as a direct result of thiseffort.Financial assistance for black students in theSchool of Education will be provided in partthrough the Ford Training and Placement Program,which emphasizes a "team teaching" approach tothe inner-city school and should provide fifteenscholarship stipends in the MAT program and ten inthe MST program.The Law School. A Committee on Problems ofMinority Students, chaired by Professor HarryKalven, is examining what the Law School can doto increase its minority student population.Upon recommendation of that Committee, theLaw School has offered to join in sponsoring theCIC's proposed Summer Institute to help preparedisadvantaged students for law school, and has committed funds for that purpose.In an effort to recruit minority group students,the Law School has sent representatives to virtuallyall of the predominantly black colleges and hasasked pre-law advisors at other universities to encourage their minority group students to apply.Other efforts by the School have included mailings of catalogues and other information to recipients of National Achievement Scholarships over thepast three years, working through people in TheUnited Negro College Fund to find applicants, talking at local high schools to encourage interest in alegal career, visiting and talking individually withparticipants in the CLEO Program and the Intensive Studies Summer Program, and working withalumni who are interested in recruiting minoritygroup students.A special scholarship fund has been created forminority group students.Graduate Library School. A student-faculty committee on the recruitment of black students hasbeen organized and is developing a plan for recruitment involving contact with black library professionals.Pritzker School of Medicine and Division of Biological Sciences. During the past four months theDivision of Biological Sciences faculty and studentshave been discussing, first informally and then through a committee, problems and issues of minority student recruitment and general educationalquestions about health science education at highschool, junior college, and college levels. An activerecruiting program by students and faculty has beeninitiated on campuses, both local and distant. Locally, efforts have been in the Chicago area schools andin some downstate schools and have largely consisted of letters and telephone conversations withfaculty and students known to the committee. Themore distant recruiting has been carried out byfaculty-student teams at Xavier and Dillard Universities in New Orleans, Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the Atlanta University system of five universities, Tennessee State and Fisk in Nashville, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, Morgan State inBaltimore, and Howard University in Washington,D.C. It is too soon to measure the impact of theserecruiting efforts, but the faculty and students whotook part in them are continuing to meet and compare the effectiveness of their trips.The faculty-student committee is also consideringhow to increase the pool of health science applicants, what it might do to upgrade local healthscience education in high schools, junior colleges,and senior colleges, and whether there are summeror part-time opportunities within the Universitywhich would offer social and economic rewards toblack students interested in the health sciences.School of Social Service Administration. Lastyear there were twenty-nine black students enrolledin SSA; this year there are fifty-four. This increasemay partially reflect the special effort to recruitblack students that was begun last year when tworepresentatives of the School visited a number ofpredominantly Negro colleges and universities inthe South. The School is offering scholarship andtutorial assistance to students, black and white, whoneed it, but this effort, along with the recruitingeffort, will be substantially increased if a programproposal now under consideration by several foundations is funded. This program seeks to provideten additional two-year tuition and living stipendscholarships, fully adequate tutoring services, summer job placement in local welfare agencies, and afull-time recruiter for minority students. The recruiter would also be responsible for coordinatingother aspects of the program.College Preparatory ProgramsA problem of long-range significance in the effortto increase the numbers of black students enrolledat highly competitive institutions of higher learningis that the number of potentially qualified appli-4ants at this time is small. Therefore, in an effort toincrease this number, and with the approval of thiscommittee, the College undertook last summer torun an experimental "Summer Institute," which wasfunded wholly from the regular funds for the College and cost about $50,000. This program for highschool students from educationally deprived areasof Chicago was designed primarily to encouragethem to continue their education through the collegelevel. Seventy-five inner-city black students fromtwenty-one schools took part, ranging in age fromthirteen to eighteen. The program was directed byLarry Hawkins, who was employed as director ofspecial programs in the College. In October, ourcommittee reviewed the summer institute programand advised the University that its continuancewould be appropriate if funding could be arranged.Under a grant from the Olin Mathieson Foundation, the students who took part in the summer program are continuing to take part in a special part-time academic-year program on campus under thedirection of Mr. Hawkins.Both the summer institute and the academic-yearprogram reflect the University's concern about increasing the number of black students in collegesthroughout the country, including our College, andits conviction that this will not occur unless specialsteps are initiated early in the educational process.Both programs are designed to spark the motivationto seek higher education on the part of those whomight not otherwise pursue that goal.With regard to the recruitment, selection, andcollege preparatory programs described in this report, your committee feels that while some of theefforts on the part of academic units of the University are inventive and promising, others are lesspromising. All of the efforts represent a great dealof time and effort on the part of many people in thisUniversity. This committee will continue to encourage further efforts toward the goal of establishing equal educational opportunity as an effectivereality for all students in this University. We alsostand ready to assist any unit of the University inthis effort.Academic ProgramsThe committee feels that the current interest inthe development of courses and research aroundminority group problems, history, and culture areentirely appropriate and compatible with the innovating and self-critical traditions of this University.These efforts should be fostered as long as theseefforts are guided by that intellectual search whichis the cornerstone of our purposes. In this regard itneed only be emphasized that none of the academic, intellectual, and cultural aspects of the Universityare or should be the exclusive province of any particular racial or ethnic group. No programs, courses,or degrees should be offered exclusively for anysuch group, nor should they be established withoutacademic justification.Three developments regarding the University'sintellectual and academic commitment to minoritygroup problems are of major significance and shouldbe emphasized. The first is the Committee on African and Afro-American Studies, appointed by theProvost in August, 1968, to inquire into the stateof such studies at the University and to recommendany changes in curricula or academic structure thatmight be desirable. The Committee at present includes Allison Davis, Philip Foster, John HopeFranklin (Chairman), Charles Long, David Street,and Richard Wade. The Committee saw its firsttask to be the gathering of complete information onavailable resources: teaching, research, and demonstration projects pursued or about to be pursued bypersons at the University. Accordingly, a questionnaire was sent in the Autumn Quarter to all faculty,which included inquiries about informal student-organized "courses" or "seminars" as well as facultycourses, research, and projects. The returns are nowin the process of analysis, and the Committee iscontinuing to meet.The second development is the series of lecturesand events of the Autumn Quarter conducted bythe College in the area of African and BlackAmerican Humanities. Three distinguished scholarsvisited the College for two days, delivered two lectures, and participated in informal discussions withstudents and faculty. In addition, the Ghana DanceEnsemble was brought to the University under theauspices of the Humanities Collegiate Division. Thecommittee planning the African and Black American Humanities series is chaired by James C. Bruce,Assistant Professor of German. More lectures, discussions, and art exhibits are planned by the committee for the Winter Quarter.Thirdly, a new program, Management Skills Development (MSD), was proposed to the faculty ofthe Graduate School of Business at a faculty meeting on December 4, 1968, by the School's Committee on Urban Problems, chaired by Arnold Weber.This program, which the faculty voted to adopt andimplement for 1969, will seek, with the cooperationof Chicago business firms, promising candidates ofminority group status, now employed, who havepotential for development into managerial leadership but who do not meet the School's requirementsfor admission to degree candidacy. These personswill be offered a packaged certificate program ofeight courses in the regular curriculum of the 190/MBA Program, preceded by a specially developedpreparatory skills course to be offered in the summer. The School expects to enroll about fifteenstudents initially in this experimental program;most, if not all, will be black. Successful graduatesof the program will be eligible to transfer to theMBA degree program and will receive credit forthat part of the program they have already completed.A number of courses and informal activities havebeen added this year directly relating to the blackexperience in America. These will be discussed in areport. A proposed Afro-American Cultural Centeris under consideration currently. The goals andoperational framework of the original proposal werecontained in an earlier report of this committee.In conclusion, the committee takes this opportunity to emphasize the fact that it regards the contents of this report as only the first step in theright direction. We recognize that there are reallimits to the resources of this institution; we alsorecognize that the resourcefulness of this Universityhas never been fully tapped. We are confident, onthe basis of initial steps forward, that the Universitywill proceed toward its goal of excellence in the realsense of the word.HONORARY DEGREESFive honorary degrees were awarded at the 327thConvocation on March 21, 1969.Doctor of Humane LettersGeorge Wells Beadle, Director, Institute of Bio-Medical Research, American Medical Association; Professor, Department of Biology and Col lege, and President Emeritus, University of Chi.cagoWise and humane educational leader, from whosepowers of intellect and character this Universityand education in America have gained deep andpermanent benefits.Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, Professor of AncientHistory, Cambridge University, EnglandHistorian and teacher, whose studies of the ancient world have greatly enhanced our knowledgeof the development of man's early institutionsand ways of life.Doctor of ScienceSir Eric Ashby, Master of Clare College and Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge University, EnglandA penetrating analyst and theoretician of highereducation, a distinguished botanist, and a university leader of world renown.Lord Blackett of Chelsea, President of theRoyal Society and Professor Emeritus and SeniorFellow, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, EnglandA profound scholar, whose achievements in natural science have advanced many frontiers andwhose concern with humanity has benefited manynations.Sir Peter Medawar, Director, National Institutefor Medical Research, London, EnglandPhysiologist, scholar, experimentalist, and philosopher, whose contributions to genetic immunology and to the basic laws of transplantation oforgans have ushered in a new era of research andtherapeutics much to the benefit of mankind.6THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO RECORDOFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE FACULTIESHWIso1CJo50wooosrsO32.OSOONU>_^|_ n zm ± c !*8"3 . 1zP > i!o - —-1 °oi Z 522 rn J(/> 3