KWAME OWUSU-KESSE ’06 speaks with an FBI Special Agent, who would not release her name, during a job fair sponsored by the Black Men’s Forum in Loker Commons yesterday.

In an effort to target organizations traditionally underrepresented at College career fairs, the Black Men’s Forum (BMF) held its first ever Alternative Career Fair yesterday in Loker Commons.

“The main purpose [of this fair] was two-fold. The first was to make undergraduates—especially minority undergraduates—aware of the diverse career opportunities,” BMF Vice President Jason W. Young ’04 said. “The second purpose was to make employers in these other fields aware of the diverse pool of talent here at Harvard.”

But the event—which attracted such organizations as the FBI and the CIA—sparked an unexpected discussion on the BMF e-mail list about the relationships between these institutions and minorities.

A few members of the group voiced concern that the CIA and FBI are organizations that have historically discriminated against blacks. Former BMF president Isaac J. Weiler ’02, a participant in the e-mail discussion, cited the FBI’s dealings with the Black Panthers during the 1960s as one example.

“There is no doubt in my mind that these organizations still perpetrate acts of injustice,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Other BMF members argued, however, that the only way to change this record is for minorities to become more involved with the FBI and the CIA.

“You can’t deny that these organizations have had a troubled history of discriminating. But you can say that about basically every institution that existed before 1950,” said current BMF President Brandon M. Terry ’05.

“If we’re going to change institutions, we need to pack them full of minorities,” said Steven K. Ridgill ’06, arguing that blacks should not isolate themselves from institutions that they feel treat them poorly.

Terry expressed a similar perspective.

“You definitely need people inside the organization that are going to be responsive to your concerns, or else they’re never going to take the people outside the organization seriously,” he said.

Yesterday’s career fair also boasted such participants as Teach for America, the Peace Corps, the State Department, IBM and the Ivy Consulting Group.

The fair itself was a relatively low-key event, with roughly 15 students making the rounds every hour.

Young said he hopes eventually to expand the fair to include everything from pharmaceutical to entertainment companies—companies that typically don’t have a big recruiting presence on campus.

Christy McKellips and Jason Glenn, representing Harvard College Undergraduate Research Programs, said that they hoped to publicize research opportunities to undergraduates and to promote the idea of getting a Ph.D. for those who were interested in teaching.

“The House tutorial system is really set up and equipped for those who are pre-law, pre-med, or pre-business,” said Glenn, a History of Science graduate student and tutor in Pforzheimer House. “But there is not a lot of guidance for students who want to pursue a Ph.D. in the humanities and sciences.”