Nor do the students wish to withdraw from the general cultural life of Harvard, or its Houses. They strongly urge, however, that the various elements of the University, and most especially the Houses, make greater efforts to bring more black artists and art, black visiting speakers and writers, to the College--for the benefit not only of black students but of the larger community. We strongly recommend that Masters, House Committees, and other bodies, make a greater effort to secure such visits, in co-operation with the black students, who have expressed an eagerness to assist the House Masters and others in securing visitors.

Advisors, Proctors and Tutors

One of the many functions of a student center would be that of providing opportunities for greater contact between black undergraduates and black graduate students. Without question one of the major problems for the black undergraduate is the lack of older blacks available as advisors. There is a special need felt for more black advisors available to black students in their freshman year, but the availability of such advisors is by no means a total solution.

There is a need for more black students serving as tutors in the Bureau of Study Counsel, and for some means--a published directory--for indicating, for the benefit of undergraduates, the special interests and talents of black graduate students. What is needed generally is more blacks serving throughout the University in positions of responsibility and authority, as members of the Administration as well as of the teaching Faculty. We specifically urge the Dean to make, in the immediate future, an appropriate appointment to a high-level administrative position.

The Committee's recommendation for recruitment of a greater number of black graduate students (see Section IV) will, when implemented, presumably add to the number of blacks serving as advisors, tutors, and the like. A program of fellowships and active recruitment will bring more blacks to the Harvard graduate school, and these students will in time be available as teaching fellows, House tutors, and for such positions as Senior Tutor. However, pending this development, it is recommended that the Committee on Houses and the Freshman Dean be advised again that the black undergraduates feel that blacks are woefully underrepresented as tutors and proctors in the Houses and in the Freshman dormitories. Even now there are blacks in the graduate school who, it is hoped, would be willing to serve as tutors in the Houses. However, there is a larger number of blacks enrolled in the other Harvard graduate schools, who may be available for freshman proctoring and advising.

The University and the Community

Finally, the black students are as a group concerned about the relationships between the University and the community. The black student believes that the University discriminates against blacks in its hiring policies; that the contractors it employs are likewise discriminatory; that its rental policies are negative in terms of the black community (its rentals are overpriced, and it "squeezes poor people out"); that its investment policies are indifferent to the "racism" of specific corporations and indifferent to the capital needs of the black community; and that in general Harvard is uninterested in the "morality" of its operations.

Obviously these grievances touch on areas well outside the jurisdiction of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and this committee has not found it possible to amass and assess all the evidence in these areas. However we all strongly feel that Harvard should create an environment in which racial justice prevails at all levels and in which civil rights legislation is fully implemented. To this end we urge the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to convey this summary of student sentiments and our concern to the operating departments of the University, and to the Governing Boards.

We recommend the appointment of an appropriate committee to assess Harvard's hiring, contact, and real estate policies. We also suggest the formulation of a committee to re-examine Harvard's investment policies to assess the degree to which these policies retard or promote the economic development of the black people and racial equality in America, with a view to stimulating black economic development in ways analogous to the investment program recently announced by the consortium of American foundations.

There are areas in which more immediate action can be taken, that fall within the jurisdiction or control, direct or indirect, of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences or its constituent members. Although the students recognized that many Departments have attempted to employ a greater number of blacks, more must be done to improve hiring policies with respect to blacks. Contractors engaged to work on University projects must be required to meet hiring standards analagous to those established for Federal contracts. And the departments, including the academic, the operating, and the support departments, must make a greater effort to hire a higher proportion of blacks--in clerical and administrative positions as well as among the trades.

The areas investigated by this committee by no means exhaust the factors that affect the quality of black student life at Harvard. Obviously the life of blacks generally in the United States today cannot but impinge on the consciousness of the black Harvard student. But our findings and recommendations have been limited to those areas where the black is affected as a student at Harvard, and over which the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences has some degree of control.

We have recommended assistance in the creation of a social and cultural center for black students, the enrichment and adaptation to the needs of black students of the cultural life of the Houses, an increase in the number of blacks in tutorial positions, and indeed, in all positions of authority and responsibility within the University. And we have underscored, as of primary importance to the black student, an enrichment of the Harvard curriculum and an expansion of its degree programs, to provide black students opportunities to pursue studies and research in their areas of special concern.

Presumably other steps will be needed as well, but those we have recommended will, we believe, improve to some degree the quality of black student life. Indeed, little that the students have called for, or that we have recommended, can have any other effect than the improvement of the quality of student life generally at Harvard. We have asked for changes that will surely alter the quality of life at this institution, but like the students, we have aimed at a life that is not different merely, but better and richer.

The Present Situation at Harvard

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