Mutual Sensitivity Wins the Day
QUIETLY, with no public commotion, a letter from Dartmouth's AfroAmerican Society landed on the desks of certain administration officers and faculty members on March 4. Calling on the College to address itself to "the solutions of the problems of socio-educational deprivations that paralyze the black community," the letter continued:
"As black students, one of our uppermost concerns is the College's social commitment to the black community as manifested in its recruitment and admissions policies and in the living circumstances of the black student on campus. We therefore cite the following needs."
The letter then listed 18 "demands" (later increased to 19) and stated that the College administration would be expected to respond by April 3.
Not unmindful of Afro-American Society confrontations on other campuses, but primarily because of its genuine commitment to Equal Opportunity as evidenced in the Trustee-approved McLane Report, the official College from President Dickey down reacted seriously to the AAS letter. What ensued was 39 days of intensive, at times physically exhausting review, discussion and formulation among administration, faculty and black students — carried out, as Dean Leonard M. Rieser put it, in a "climate of urgency in order that there be no climate of emergency."
The agreement that was finally hammered out and then approved at an April 16 meeting of the full faculty did not meet the Afro-American Society's every wish, but it went a long way to give reality to the program proposed by A AS. A guiding principle on the College side was that while an adjustment in traditional requirements, especially in admissions, is reasonable in the case of black students, there could be no lowering of standards of performance or of the worth of a Dartmouth degree. Most important of all, agreement was reached through the display of sensitivity and responsibility on both sides, and with the understanding that cooperative effort would continue in achieving results that could not be expected to happen instantly.
In its second letter, dated April 12 and replying to the College's written response of April 11, the AAS stated:
"We are also encouraged by the fact that the College has recognized the urgency of our proposals and has seen fit to react positively and substantively as befits an institution of Dartmouth's character and quality. ... We are confident that our present relationship, born of mutual awareness and sensitivity to solutions to the problems and needs of black people in America, will preclude e ven the consideration of violence and confrontation by any sector of the College community. . . .We are sure that in safeguarding its interests, Dartmouth inevitably embraces the concerns of the socially and educationally deprived who look upon institutions like Dartmouth as a source of hope, a chance to break away from a cycle of despair and uselessness in order to become effective participants in the society. We are further confident that the past weeks have exhibited a spirit of cooperation that should make Dartmouth a model to which other institutions can turn for guidance ..."
The College coordinating committee named by President Dickey to conduct discussions with AAS consisted of Dean Rieser, Dean Thaddeus Seymour, Dean Charles F. Dey of the Tucker Foundation, Prof. James W. Fernandez, chairmen of the Committee on Educational Planning, Prof. John A. Menge, acting chairman of the Committee on the Freshman Class, and Prof. William M. Smith, chairman of the Committee on Instruction. The AAS members were headed by their president, Wallace L. Ford '70.
During the negotiating period the executive committee of the faculty met three times, one session lasting from 3 pm. until 1:30 a.m. A number of AAS "talking teams" conferred with faculty committees, and all department chairmen took part in one other meeting. It was agreed to extend the discussion period by one week in order to iron out some complicated points, and on April 11 the College's point-by-point reply (see below) was made. This was accompanied by a lengthy letter from President Dickey (also below) explaining some of the general considerations that needed to be taken into account. A week later the long sequence of events ended when faculty voted to approve the admission of more qualified students from black and other educationally deprived groups, to establish a Committee on Equal Opportunity, and to approve establishment of an Afro-American Studies Program.
Following are the Afro-American Society proposals (in italics) and immedi- ately after each one the official College response:
(1) That at least 100 or 11% of each incoming freshman class beginning with theClass of 1973 be composed of Afro-Americans.
Operating under policy guidelines recommended in the McLane Report and subsequently approved by the Trustees, the Board on Admissions and Financial Aid will be admitting more than 120 black students for the Class of 1973. The actual number accepting is clearly beyond the control of the College and will not be known until May 10. However, the College is prepared, with the continued assistance of members of the AAS, to intensify efforts urging as many as possible of these qualified black students to accept the offer of admission.
As a result of these efforts, it is confidently expected that the number of black students in the incoming freshman class will be a significant increase over previous years and will be more broadly representative of national patterns. It is also the policy of the College that the proportion of black students admitted in future years will steadily increase, reflecting this continuing commitment to national representation.
Because we recognize the urgency of moving toward the national representation urged by the McLane Report and the vote of the Executive Committee, the six undersigned will recommend to the faculty that the Admissions Office cooperate with the black students in supplementary recruitment efforts in an attempt to enroll additional qualified black students in the Class of 1973. These students will represent an addition to that class as determined by acceptance of admission on May 1.
(2) That the Admissions Office publicizeand implement a pledge to modify admissions standards to accord with the socio-educational deprivation of the black community.
On February 21, 1969 the Committee on the Freshman. Class approved the current Admissions Office practice to "accept for admission those black and educationally deprived students whose records would not in a traditional sense be deemed acceptable but which would, nevertheless, appear to give them a reasonable chance of meeting the normal academic requirements of Dartmouth College." This policy statement has been approved by the Executive Committee of the Faculty and accords with the view of the Committee on Educational Planning that the whole matter of predicting success in colleges such as Dartmouth for applicants from areas of social, economic and educational deprivation needs to be re-examined.
(3) That 10 to 15 black students not meeting admissions standards under #1 be enrolled as "special students" with the optionof entering a regular degree program if theirperformance is satisfactory.
A "special student" program for a maximum of eight students will be recommended to the new Committee on Equal Opportunity to start in September 1969. These students will be included in the summer Bridge Program. Their academic year program will be patterned after that of the Foundation Year students, with the understanding that they may enter a degree program when the Admissions Office has judged their performance satisfactory.
(4) That the College hire a black admissionsofficer whose major duties would be the recruitment of black students.
Mr. Samuel W. Smith '49 has been appointed as an Assistant Director of Admissions. We recognize that because an offer was made before the Afro-American letter of March 4 was delivered to the Director of Admissions, the appointment is not responsive to the understandable desire of members of the Afro-American Society to participate in such an appointment.
Accordingly, the Coordinator of the McLane Report is recommending to the Trustees that they approve funds for a black recruitment officer, a graduating senior or a recent graduate, who will serve as a member of the Admissions Office staff to broaden the pool of qualified black applicants.
(5) That one black student each term bereleased from normal academic obligationsin order to work as a full-time assistant tothe new admissions officer in recruitment ofblack students.
The Committee on Instruction sees no difficulty in having at least one black student nominated by the AAS working on recruitment with the Admissions Office. If this work is done for course credit it must be supervised and evaluated by a regular Dartmouth faculty member or members. The Admissions Office has indicated that they would welcome the work of black students.
The Committee on Instruction will recommend that students be permitted to apply to the Committee on Administration (CCSC) for a three-course reduction in requirements for a degree, provided that the students are associated with a faculty member or members who would certify to the department at the end of the term that the student's performance was at an acceptable level and possessed some real measure of academic merit.
(6) That the Bridge Program be expanded toas many students as would benefit from it.
The Bridge Program will be expanded to a maximum of 26 this summer in accordance with recommendations of the ABC Director.
(7) That Bridge Program students have theoption of distributive course credit for summer courses preceding matriculation if thosecourses are taught by Dartmouth professors.
The Committee on Instruction will recommend to the faculty that students in the Bridge Program be offered course credit for no more than two unspecified courses in Social Science or Humanities, or less likely, Science, provided that instruction is by a regular Dartmouth faculty member who will certify to his department that the student's performance deserves such credit.
(8) That the College hire a black guidancecounselor who will counsel black studentsand assist them in their academic and psychological adjustments on campus.
The Director of Institutional Research and Counseling will begin immediately to recruit a black Counselor by September 1969. He has asked that designated black students help in the search and selection.
(9) That one black student each term bereleased from normal academic obligationsin order to work full time with the blackguidance counselor.
The Committee on Instruction sees no difficulty in having at least one black student nominated by the AAS working with the Office of Institutional Research and Counseling. If this work is done for course credit, it must be supervised and evaluated by a regular Dartmouth faculty member or members. The Counseling Office has indicated that they would welcome the work of black students.
The Committee on Instruction will recommend that students be permitted to apply to the Committee on Administration (CCSC) for a three-course reduction in requirements for a degree, provided that the students are associated with a faculty member or members who would certify to the department at the end of the term that the student's performance was at an acceptable level and possessed some real measure of academic merit.
(10) That the Financial Aid Office devise aform and a system of awarding financial aidpackages that are geared to the socio-economic realities of the black family.
The Office of Financial Aid has been working in close conjunction with the College Scholarship Service since last fall on the development of a "simplified" Parents' Confidential Statement of low-income families. The Financial Aid Office will welcome the opportunity to work with a committee designated by the Afro-American Society to develop such a form and method of distributing it.
The Financial Aid Office will continue and will intensify its efforts to take into account in the "packaging" of financial aid awards the problems of students from the lower socio-economic groups.
(11) That adequate financial aid be assuredeach entering black student on the basisof financial need.
The College has not knowingly denied financial assistance to any black student who has been admitted and who has demonstrated need. The Trustees have authorized financial aid to all black students who are admitted in the Class of 1973 and who demonstrate need.
(12) That College rules and regulationscreating a negative distinction between financial aid and non-financial aid studentsbe eliminated.
There are no Financial Aid Office restrictions which limit a student's right to live in off-campus housing or to become married as long as his financial need continues. Effective in September, the current restrictions on the possession and maintenance of automobiles by upperclass financial aid recipients will be eliminated.
(13) That financial aid be independent of astudent's academic standing, except in casesof flagrant neglect.
Effective in September normal financial aid packages will not be affected by a student's academic standing or by discipline action by the Committee on Administrate (CCSC). In short, the components of normal financialaid packages will be altered only when there are changes in need.
(14) That the Afro-American Society begiven a minimum annual operating fund of$5,000 and that subsequent fiscal arrange merits be handled through the Tucker FCurdation.
The Afro-American Society will receive an amount in fiscal year 1969-70 to a budget which is mutually acceptable to the Society, its Faculty Adviser and the Council on Student Organizations.
The independent character of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation prevents it from becoming a special advocate for any par! ticular campus organization.
(15) That a new site for an Afro-AmericanCenter be found before the present 41 College Street site is eliminated for Collegeexpansion, and that a black architect be hired for any new Center that is built.
41 College Street is an historic house and. therefore, it will not be demolished. Use of this, however, must be in accordance with the recent March 1969 statement from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which states that "Every service and benefit offered by the institution to students ' must be open and available to all students without regard to race, color or national origin." Non-compliance with this directive constitutes "a violation of compliance requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
Should construction of a new facility be desired, it might have the status of a private and independent corporation. The choice of architect would be up to the students and the alumni who might serve as members of such a corporation.
(16) That the Afro-American Society have as much autonomy as every other recognized undergraduate organization, and that it be allowed to sponsor athletic teams in intramural sports.
The Afro-American Society will have as much autonomy as that which is accorded every other recognized undergraduate organization.
The Faculty Committee on Athletics will recommend to the Faculty and the appropriate student agencies that the Afro-American Society be allowed to sponsor athletic teams in scheduled intramural sports beginning in the fall of 1969.
(17) That a. "Black Studies" Major be developed and offered by September 1970, amithat instructors in the Major include blactpersons who might not have the conventional requirements for college professorships but who are knowledgeable and articulate in the experiences of black people.
At its meeting of February 17, the Afro-American Studies Committee voted unanimously to propose to the Committee on Instruction, for forwarding to the Faculty the following two-stage approach for the establishment of Afro-American Studies at Dartmouth: 1. An Afro-American Studies Certificate Program. (To be acted upon this year and if approved to be implemented for the academic year 1969-70.) 2. An "Afro-American Studies Major" in which students will major in Afro-American Stud but concentrate in a traditional field within the humanities or social sciences. Ho be acted upon this year and if approved to be implemented in the academic year 1970-71.)
(18) That the College make greater effortsto recruit black academicians, particularlyfor the urban studies program.
' Greater efforts have been initiated to recruit black faculty. Clearly a high priority will be in the field of urban studies. The value of appointing black persons to the faculty who are informed and experienced in the problems of the black community is acknowledged. Such persons need not necessarily possess the usual academic credentials, but they should possess a proven competence in the field of their instruction.
(19) That there be established a separatejudiciary committee to deal with disciplinarycases involving black students.
The Faculty Executive Committee has approved the following statement: "The Executive Committee recognizes that black students at Dartmouth feel that serious problems of communication exist in their relationship with the judicial system at Dartmouth. Recognizing also, however, that the present judicial system requires reform, the Executive Committee pledges itself to expedite reform of that system, in consultation with the AAS as well as with other student groups and the new Committee on Equal Opportunity."
In their letter of response to the AfroAmerican Society the College negotiators went beyond the 19 points at issue and listed 17 "actions, programs, and other initiatives that have been undertaken pursuant to the objectives of the report of the Committee on Equal Opportunity." These were given as:
(20) one black administrative intern has been appointed for next year and another is being sought; (21) two black faculty instructor/interns are being sought for next year; (22) recruitment of a black assistant proctor has been undertaken; (23) the DCAC is engaged in an active effort to find qualified black coaching candidates; (24) the College is seeking a personnel officer to recruit larger numbers of disadvantaged persons for employment opportunities throughout the College; (25) a black Instructor in Education has been appointed to the faculty as of February 1, 1969; (26) efforts will be expanded to recruit black women students for the one-year program; (27) the College will undertake a systematic effort to involve black alumni in programs and agencies of the College; (28) appointment of a graduate manager for the Afro-American Society is under consideration; (29) recruitment of a development officer with special responsibility for generating funds for Equal Opportunity has been undertaken; (30) the Government Department is now offering a joint course at Talladega College; (31) Thayer School has been developing a collaborativ program with Tuskegee Institute in computer time-sharing and the Thayer Project system of engineering education; (32) Thayer School will offer an experimental science course in two black high school in Jersey City beginning in September 969; (33) the Medical School has initiated a summer Bridge Program to help prepare disadvantaged college undergraduates for medical school admission; (34) the intern and urban studies program in Jersey City will be expanded; (35) two new Upper Valley ABC programs have been initiated; (36) the faculty and staff of the College will be asked to commit 1% of 1969-70 salary as their share of the financing necessary to implement the Equal Opportunity program.
President's Letter
In addition to the written response made to the Afro-American Society, the College's coordinating committee presented a letter from President Dickey setting forth some of the broader aspects of the College's Equal Opportunity program that must be taken into account:
GENTLEMEN:
My colleagues, the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, the Dean of the College, the Dean of the Tucker Foundation, and the Chairmen of the three faculty committees: Educational Planning, Instruction, and the Freshman Class, who have been conferring with you and other members of the AfroAmerican Society, believe that it would be helpful if I attempted to set down some of the things we all believe must be taken into account as we press forward both our respective efforts and our common commitment to the many-faceted course of equal opportunity at Dartmouth.
We start by knowing that however common is our commitment to this goal and its daily work, we who are white can never truly know the personal burden and urgency it imposes on today's black students. In turn we are also required to know that this fact itself as well as the nature of our inescapable official responsibilities for the total and enduring welfare of this institution make it impossible for you to put yourselves, so to speak, in our shoes in reckoning with considerations of wisdom, finance, timing and a tolerable level of general fairness for all in the face of the inescapable need for measures of special attention here and throughout our society to the situation of black Americans.
You have helped us toward greater understanding and we will do our best to keep the relationship with you such that we can continue to be helped by you. On the other side of things, we will try to accept a special obligation not to expect you to try to stand in our shoes. We will both have to learn to live with the limitations in trust and mutual confidence and the heavy judgments that such a tangled web of circumstance and responsibility may impose from time to time on all of us.
As I have said, we will not expect the impossible from you. We will hope that a reciprocity of straightforwardness on our part will work toward showing us both possibilities we may not yet perceive for further development here of collaboration in the cause of justice and conscience that we have begun to win here by side-by-side confrontation of the problems rather than of each other.
The specific concerns currently being discussed deal broadly with the need for more black students, more attention to black studies and culture in the programs of the College, more black faculty and staff personnel, and the desire on the part of your Society for more opportunities to further "black identity" in the College community.
In order to focus on the relevant present and foreseeable future I shall not go back in my comments on these matters beyond the work of the Dartmouth Committee on Equal Opportunity established by the Trustees on my recommendation in April 1968. It is due a lot of people, however, to say parenthetically that the College's concern and concrete efforts in a number of the specific areas as well as in the basic work of eliminating racial and religious discrimination from the campus go back well before your day. In truth, as the Committee's Report testifies many of the Committee's proposals for future advances in each of the above four basic areas were grounded in policies and programs already pioneered and established in the work and structure of the College
The McLane Committee, as it is usually identified, was given the comprehensive charge by the Trustees to "review Dartmouth's commitment to the objective of equal opportunities with a view both to strengthening existing programs and to developing in all sectors of the institution appropriate new initiatives."
The Committee began work immediately in the spring term of 1968, made an important interim recommendation to the Trustees within two months, and issued its full Report at the end of the next regular term in December 1968....
The McLane Committee Report, as accepted by the Trustees, provides policy and program guidance on the broad areas currently under discussion as follows:
Admissions
The Committee stated (Report, p. 14):
"A healthy student body of the intellectually able should be broadly representative of national patterns of distribution based on race, religion, social and economic status, and other factors. Dartmouth is a national institution and, therefore, in the long run should attempt to achieve this goal. This goal is not easily reached."
Finally, in its Conclusions (Report, p. 51) the Committee addressed itself to the black student enrollment in these words:
"Dartmouth should seek to substantially increase the number of black students in order to make its student body more nearly conform to national patterns of population diversification."
Recognizing the critical role of recruitment effort in carrying out this recommendation, the Committee recommended, along with other possible steps, that "The College should continue financially and otherwise to support the recruitment efforts by some 50 members of the Afro-American Society."
The record of the past three months leaves no doubt that these recommendations are being carried out to the full. The Admissions Office has mounted an intensified recruitment search for qualified black applicants. The indispensable backbone of that heightened and broadened effort has been the work of many black students working under the leadership of Alfred W. Sloan '69 who, I am informed, has functioned for all intents and purposes as a member of the enrollment staff.
This effort has produced approximately 200 black applicants compared with 94 last year and 39 five years ago. The following resolution of the faculty Committee on the Freshman Class, adopted February 21, 1969, sets guidelines of selection which my colleagues and I believe the great majority of the faculty would regard both as responsive to the goals set by the McLane Committee and as consonant with Dartmouth's fundamental purposes and character as a top quality, limited size, private, higher education enterprise:
"To move as rapidly as possible toward the McLane Report objective of achieving a student body broadly representative of national patterns, the Committee on the Freshman Class approved the current admissions office practice of accepting for admission those black and other educationally deprived students whose records would not, in a traditional sense, be deemed acceptable but which would, nevertheless, appear to give them a reasonable chance of meeting the normal academic requirements of Dartmouth College."
In this general connection it is very pertinent to note that at the outset of its Report (p. 6) the McLane Committee stated that "the College should continue to maintain a single standard applicable to all" for awarding its degrees. ...
Manifestly "substantially increasing" today's black student community pursuant to the above policy guideline of the Committee on the Freshman Class will require adjustments throughout the institution if the experience is to be, as it must, a good one for all concerned. Some such steps have been taken, e.g., the establishment of the AfroAmerican Cultural Center, greater attention to black studies and the A.B.C. "Bridge" program. All of these are still in early stages of development; their further development and new initiatives ought to be taken in the light of a well-managed experience. Not to do this is to risk discrediting and impairing everything that is at stake in this matter for all of us.
We of the faculty and staff who have had the primary responsibility for implementing these initiatives have worked very hard at both quickly getting things to where we are and at understanding the larger task of getting forward from here. We claim no infallibility but our experience does counsel that in the admissions area the faithful implementation of the McLane recommendations as now projected for the Class of 1973 is about the limit of what can be done responsibly and fairly at this time. We would only add that we will continue to welcome black student participation in the evaluation of our experience and the development of our enrollment work and other programs in the light of this experience.
Black Studies and Related Programs
The McLane Report (pp. 26-27) indicates that in 1967-68 there were 15 existing courses in the Departments of Romance Languages, Comparative Literature, Sociology, Anthropology, English, Music, and Government that were relevant to black studies and it concluded that "an Afro-American Studies program would be in substantial demand by both white and black students."
An ad hoc group under the chairmanship of Leo Spitzer of the History Department promptly took up this side of the Committee's recommendations. Curriculum revision anywhere anytime is a relatively slow process but the highest priority is being given this matter. A proposed Afro-American studies program has already been formulated by the ad hoc group. Black students have played a prominent part in the ad hoc group's work and they will be participating in the deliberations of the standing committee of the faculty to which the proposed program has been transmitted for action.
Black Faculty and Staff
This, as had been anticipated by the McLane Committee, is the most difficult area in which to produce prompt, substantial change. I have personally pressed for special attention to this side of things for several years and in general I am satisfied that there has been a sincere effort on the part of the various offices and departments to respond affirmatively. My colleagues will provide you with the specific recruitment efforts that have been made. Results are beginning to show but to date progress on this front is unsatisfactory to all of us. Experience here and elsewhere makes it ever increasingly clear that the development of a substantial segment of qualified, mature black faculty and staff personnel is the most difficult problem of all to solve promptly.
It should also be noted that in the opinion of quite a few students of these matters, the availability of black faculty and staff is a factor that must be kept in mind in pursuing the goal of a good college experience for a substantially larger black student group on a particular campus under today's conditions.
I can promise you that we will redouble our efforts to recruit qualified black personnel in all areas of the institution and we'll welcome help from all quarters in getting the results we all want.
Black Identity
A number of the items raised by the AfroAmerican Society in the current discussions deal directly or indirectly with the desire of the members for what is frequently referred to as greater black identity. In the most fundamental sense this is a matter for the individual to decide and I am sure that no white person can presume to participate in a black person's view of such a highly personal matter. I might go further and say that I believe most of us here at Dartmouth understand and respect the desire of black persons for the kind of group and cultural identity that over the ages has helped to sustain most of us whatever the particular identity might be.
I mentioned earlier that the McLane Committee made an important interim recommendation only two months after its organization. This, of course, was that the College provide the Afro-American Society with a physical home in the form of a Cultural Center. This recommendation was approved by the Trustees in June and when College opened for the fall term the historic Lord House had been converted and was turned over to the Society for its operation during a two-year experimental period This I take it we would all agree was a major, immediate witness that the official College does take very seriously the black identity desire of black students.
I am confident that you can expect to find this kind of understanding and response to many of your specific concerns in this area.
The limitations on the College's response in these matters will be mainly of two kinds:
(1) Dartmouth is committed to purposes and principles by history and conviction that bar discrimination on the basis of race or religion in the operations of the College. This, of course, was why the Afro-American Society Cultural Center was provided with the understanding —however theoretical it may be in practice -that the facility would not be operated on a segregated basis.
(2) Dartmouth must comply with a recent and very explicit law barring various forms of segregation (Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). In particular I invite your careful attention to the attached Memorandum dated March 1969 addressed to me on the subject: "Separate Programs for Minority Group Students" from the Office of the Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
It is clear even on what has had to be very preliminary consideration that a number of the specific proposals you have made would require extremely careful assessment in respect to their compliance with the law.
Even, though both of the above fundamental factors will limit our ability to put certain of your requests into effect in their proposed terms, I do repeat the assurance I have given you that on our side we will continue to work with you in finding mutually acceptable ways to further the kind of black identity that will contribute to a good college experience for black students within the basic purposes and principles of this kind of higher education enterprise.
As we work at learning our way into this perplexity I should think that all of us, black and white alike, who are responsibly concerned with these matters would profit from a careful consideration of an article in the Spring 1969 Princeton Quarterly, University, entitled "Black Power and the American University" by Professor W. Arthur Lewis, one of the world's outstanding black academicians who is presently Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton.
My colleagues are working intensively with the various offices and agencies of the faculty and administration to develop concrete responses wherever presently possible . on your specific requests. They will be touch with you directly on that side of things. I shall do my best to see that the matter is fully and fairly exposed to the Trustees and above all that our concern throughout all constituencies of the institution is positive and creative as well as responsible.
