PBH Recruits SDS and Afro Aid This Fall

Phillips Brooks House has decided to join forces with Students for a Democratic Society and Afro, Harvard's Black Power group, to set up joint projects to help disadvantaged Cambridge public school students get into college.

PBH president Wesley E. Profit '69, who made the announcement yesterday, said that he hoped members of the other groups would inject life into PBH programs by providing more students with other points of view.

Spokesmen for SDS and Afro said they were interested in working with PBH-style programs because they offer excellent ways to help residents of Cambridge who, according to the students, have been victimized by Harvard.

"In the past PBH worked mostly with tutoring individual students who asked for help, but now we're going to deal with the city's educational difficulties--lack of enough guidance counselors, for example," Profit said.

Cambridge has one of the highest high school drop-out rates in the country.

More than 20 PBH workers spent the summer studying the problems of Cambridge public schools as part of the Cambridge Educational Advancement Project (CEAP), which the Federal government paid for with a $42,000 grant.

CEAP leader Robert D. Goldstein '68 said, "We are going to conduct an active talent search for teenagers with specific higher education goals, and help them by tutoring, telling them about getting Federal money, and counseling."

Profit cited the Opportunities in Area 7 program, which has been run jointly by PBH and Afro, as an example of the success Harvard organizations can achieve by working together. The program provided an American history course for students in Cambridge's Black area and sought out gifted students who needed help.

PBH members this summer also submitted a report to President Pusey's committee on the relationship of the university and the city, which is headed by James Q. Wilson, professor of Government. The report, which will be released Monday, informs the committees of ways Harvard students would like the University to open its resources to Cambridge residents, Profit said.

For example, he said, Harvard could share its Mbraries with Cambridge residents and make greater efforts to involve them in the intellectual life of the University.