New University Personnel Officer To Hire, Train Minority Workers

Harvard has hired a special personnel officer to recruit and train black and Spanish-speaking people for jobs in the University.

Larry E. Kinnard, first to hold this newly-created post, said yesterday that he hopes to place members of minority groups in meaningful jobs. "This means as computer operators, clerk-typists, lab technicians. Nothing like being a dishwasher," Kinnard said.

The program will also include on-the-job training. "This means that people will be hired who would normally be considered unqualified," Kinnard said. Classes in basic English will be held during working hours, for workers who speak only Spanish.

This kind of intensified effort to hire minority group workers was recommended by the Wilson Committee in its report of last year on "The University and the Community."

An important part of the program will be human relations counselling, Kinnard said. "Most of it will be directed toward the supervisory personnel, helping them to work with the new employees," he added.

Kinnard said that the workers would come from both Cambridge and Boston. Recruiting will be done through agencies already established, like ABCD and the Workers' Defense League.

He stated that he thought his post had been created because "Harvard finally realized that it had to do something about jobs for these people in the community. It's not a complete answer, and of course I don't think I can solve the whole problem, but at least it's a start."

He had previously been associated with Jobs for Cincinnati, a private corporation organized by Cincinnati businessmen to recruit and train members of minority groups for jobs with local companies.