Bender Says 'Anti-Bias' Bills Are Not Workable

No one can enforce an anti-discrimination bill in Massachusetts colleges, Dean Bender told the CRIMSON yesterday.

Bender expressed disapproval of H-1296 and S-133, which come up before the General Court Committee on Education right after spring vacation. The first bill would have a committee investigate discrimination in Massachusetts schools; the second would outlaw quota systems and other "unfair practices."

Neither would work, said Bender. "It's extremely difficult to find the facts," he stated. "Discrimination is almost never written into a college's books: it exists in the minds of the admissions committee."

First University Opinion

Bender's statement was the first time a University officer has spoken on the bills. The official Harvard attitude will soon be set by the Corporation, which will also decide whether to send witnesses to the hearings.

"Applicants are often judged on personality, leadership, or emotional stability," Bender said. "There is no rigid standard for measuring these things, and admission policy is often vague. How then can you tell whether a student has been turned down because of discrimination?"

Confidential Reasons

Admissions committees often use confidential information in their work, he added. An applicant may be rejected because of a private report on his character written by a principal or headmaster.

"This report is intended just for the admissions committee. It we had to show it to investigating committees, we would lose the confidence of the principals who write them."

"Harvard has a clear conscience on discrimination," Bender continued. "Our admissions committee makes its choice only one relative promise.

Smart Men Can Always Get in

If an applicant is smart enough to make the Dean's List, he is almost always accepted, Bender said. Men with lower aptitude are judged on extra-curricular activities, character, alumni parentage, home state, and similar factors.

"To be effective, an anti-discrimination law would have to insist that colleges take the 1000 smartest applicants, and consider nothing else. But tests often fail to predict how a person will do in college.

"In one year, for example, we studied all the students who has scored 300--a perfect grade--on their scholastic aptitude test. Half of them flunked out."

We must convince colleges to end discrimination by logic, not by law, Bender concluded.