Bias Charged In University Entry Policies

Harvard College and all graduate schools except the Business School use such allegedly discriminatory devices on their entrance applications as requests for an applicant's mother's maiden name, the birthplaces of his parents, and his photograph, the results of an investigation by the Massachusetts Committee for Equality in Education claim.

This information was part of the testimony delivered yesterday before the Education Committee of the General Court in behalf of a bill to promote fair educational practices in the Commonwealth.

30-Group Combination

Organized particularly for the purpose of pushing fair educational practices legislation, the Massachusetts Committee for Equality in Education is an amalgam of some 30 political and religious organizations and independent individuals. The Harvard Teachers Union and the Students for Democratic Action are on its letterhead.

Originally two bills were scheduled for hearing yesterday but the sponsors of H 1296, which would have set up a special commission to study and report on the extent of discrimination in the state, withdrew their suggested act in favor of S 133.

The latter bill defines unfair educational practices and sets up a special office to investigate charges of bias in educational organizations and machinery for ordering guilty institutions to cease and desist from use of discrimination.

A representative of the Boston University Young Progressives asserted that the inability of the late Walter A. Pollano '50 to secure entrance to medical school was due to discrimination. The BU speaker alleged that Pollano's suicide is an illustration of the sometimes tragic consequences of bias in colleges and professional schools