Students, faculty and members of the medical community gathered at Harvard Medical School (HMS) on October 2 to attend a Diversity and Development Symposium.

The symposium, which celebrates 30 years of affirmative action at HMS, highlighted both recent developments at the medical school and plans for the future.

Keynote speakers included Harvard University President Neil L. Rudenstine, HMS Dean Joseph B. Martin and M.D./Ph.D candidate Donnella Green.

All three speakers stressed the need for continued affirmative action, particularly in the recruitment of a more diverse faculty at HMS and its affiliated organizations.

"I believe we have not done as well as we might have with respect to recruiting talented people of color to our staff and management positions," Martin said. "We are looking to see how we can appear more promising to talented individuals from minority groups."

HMS's policy of affirmative action began in 1969 as a faculty resolution made in response to the civil rights protests of that year and the subsequent assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., said Dr. Leon Eisenberg, the Maude and Lillian Presley professor of social medicine, emeritus at HMS.

That year, 16 "disadvantaged" students were admitted to HMS, he said. By this June, more than 700 "underrepresented" students will have received a degree from HMS or from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, he added.

"[HMS's record of diversity is] enviable, marvelous, and strong," Rudenstine said. "[But] we're not there yet; not across the student level, certainly not at the faculty level and not at the staff level."

Eisenberg, who made the opening remarks, concurred. "The goal must be to recruit and promote minority faculty as successfully as we have identified and backed students."

Green, whose speech centered around her own experiences as the only black woman in the 30-year history of HMS's neurobiology department, said, "The hospitals are significantly less diverse than the medical school."

She said that she had often felt dis- scriminated against as the only woman orminority in various classes, and particularly inresidencies or wards.

"I have experienced firsthand the indignity ofracism and sexism at this school," she said."Discrimination in its present form is oftensubtle and covert--but [still] damaging. I know[HMS] has prepared me incredibly well for acareer. Yet, had I had the same opportunities, thesame experiences, as those around me, I know myexperience would have been even richer."

Martin is spearheading the current effort toincrease faculty and staff diversity at allHMS-affiliated organizations.

"The Executive Council on Diversity hasdeveloped a mission to pull together all thevarious constituencies," Martin said. "There isnow a uniform plan to monitor recruitment ofminorities in all Harvard residencies."

Recent developments include a review of thestatus of assistant and associate professors,"resulting in many well-deserved promotions ofwomen and minorities," Martin said; the creationof three Offices for Women at two area hospitalsand a medical center; and increased financialsupport to the already-existing HMS DiversityOffice.

Tied up in the discussion of the need forcontinued affirmative action was the RiggsAmendment, the proposed law that would prohibitaffirmative action at any school where even onestudent receives federal aid, such as a loan.