Closed Door Policy

As if admissions policy makers in northern colleges did not have enough problems, the shut-down of high schools in Charlottsville, Norfolk, and Little Rock has raised an issue in higher education circles which will not be easily solved. In brief, the policy makers must decide if they will continue to admit or reject applicants from these schools on their individual merits, or, in the interests of supporting the Supreme Court, reject them all on the grounds of inadequate preparation. Such rejection, it it felt, would underscore the need for reopening the schools and integrating them.

In University Hall, the issue remains undecided, since there have been no applicants from the closed high schools thus far this year. Until an applicant appears--and there have been only two or three on the average in past years--there is no need for a final policy.

Since the high school seniors affected by the shutdown will be accepted into colleges in the South without any difficulty, the weight of a Harvard decision to reject them would be negligible. It might, moreover, discourage southern applicants on a broader scale, and it would also be an unfortunate precedent in an admissions policy which tries to consider individuals rather than quotas or IBM statistics.

However, Harvard is not the only college considering the question of supporting the Court's decision. Should the Ivy League colleges or, on an even wider basis, "northern schools," agree to shut out the applicants from the three high schools, there would be a significant road-block to good higher education ahead of southern students in closed high schools.

Supposing such an alliance could be formed, there remains the question of whether the end is worth such unfortunate means. More important, it is uncertain whether such a display of moral unity would speed integration or merely create more regionalism in southern education.

Whichever course is decided upon, there will probably be regrets and misunderstandings, as in any issue where education feels its political duties and its instincts towards the individual in conflict. But unless the closed schools reopen shortly, a choice may be unavoidable.