Harvard-Radcliffe recruiting can look to their successes when the criticism gets tough to take. Reardon described the case of an applicant he found in Oakland. His high school "was the worst, toughest, most unpleasant place I ever went into, with every window blocked out. I felt I would be more comfortable with a policeman. The kid ran the school. He was first in his class, president of the school, captain of a team, but with 450 scores. We decided to take him and give him some real help. His Expos teacher had him write a paper every day. By junior and senior year his grades were no lower than a B. He's at law school now. He had it but I could've been wrong. The question is do you take a chance. We believe when you find someone, you do."

Minorities: Can't Always Tell from the Application

Massachusetts law prohibits the admissions office from asking candidates to specify their race, but federal laws require the college to break down its applications by the minority status of the applicant. To comply with these somewhat contradictory laws. Harvard has adopted a middle path; culling the candidate's race from the hints he drops in his applications and from the reports of interviewers.

Daniel Steiner '54, General Counsel to the University, said Monday that he "isn't 100 per cent sum" but thought that an interviewer "probably shouldn't" indicate an applicant's race on his report. He said that there is a "grey area" in the law on this point, but added that he thought it permissible for a student to volunteer information on his race.

William Bowen, an official of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, said yesterday, however, that unless the University has filed an affirmative action program with the commission, it cannot request the candidate to state his race on the application or allow an interviewer to note the applicant's race on the report. He said the agency could take action by itself on a case like this or could wait for a complaint.

Steiner replied yesterday that the University has not filed such a program with the MCAD. "To be frank, I didn't know they had such a procedure," he said.

Jewett said that Harvard was not violating the spirit of the Massachusetts law, since it was enacted to prevent discrimination against minorities, not to stop programs of affirmative action. He added that he "guesses that the Massachusetts law would not be held applicable" and that the "doesn't think it will ever be enforced."

Admissions officials explained that the first reader of each file classifies the applicant as either white, black, Oriental, Indian or Latin on the basis of a student's participation in a scholarship program for minorities, the kinds of books he reads (i.e., Langston Hughes is a giveaway) and his high school background. Jewett said that sometimes the interviewer uses phrases like "Despite his being a minority student..."

Jewett and Reardon acknowledged that the system is imprecise and that each year they make a few classifying mistakes, admitting blacks they thought were white and vice versa. Jewett also agreed it would be possible for a candidate to pose as a minority student by dropping a few hints on his application, but an interview would greatly reduce his chances for success at this ploy.

Though one of the two black admission officers at Harvard generally read all the folders on minority applicants, Reardon said they should not be regarded as "black admissions officers," but as just black members of the admissions committee. "Sometimes they can be a lot tougher on minority candidates than other, more liberal committee members," he added.

Radcliffe, however, does have special minority recruiters who specialize in handling the difficulties surrounding minority admissions, but when it comes down to the actual consideration of cases, neither department makes any specific, special provision for minorities. They are considered against everyone else in their class and reported to the full committee by the area man, not a minority recruiter.

Reardon said that although Harvard recruited 25 per cent fewer blacks this year, the group "we took this year are probably better in an academic sense than any other group we have admitted so far...There are some alumni, though, who think we've admitted some kids who are bright, who are black and very reserved, but not as pizazzy as some other kids who had 480 scores."

Admissions officials, however, often can't treat minority applications in exactly the way one from a highly competitive school is treated; the kinds of statistics are different. "A candidate can come out of DeWitt Clinton, a tough school in the Bronx, New York, and be first in his class and have a 290 verbal," one admissions officer said, "so rank in class generally doesn't tell you anything out of ghetto schools."

Reardon said Harvard tries to "come to grips" with a minority student's background. If a candidate has what he called "a lot of drive and energy" the committee would look at him even though his board scores may be in the 500s, and probably would debate the case "the head off a pin." But if a minority student has gone to a prep school all his life, he'll get no special consideration.

Admissions officials at both Harvard and Radcliffe denied they had any "target" figures or quotas based on race, but acknowledged they keep an eye on the number of minority students they admit. "We don't set any specific target or quota, though we look back at what we've done so that if we thought we hadn't done enough, we'd probably go back and look again and be sure we were right." Reardon said.