HEW Says Harvard Hiring May Be Unfair to Women

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare-in a 16-page "letter of finding" received by Harvard within the past two weeks-has criticized numerous aspects of Harvard hiring practices regarding women, and has asked for a response from the University by the end of the month.

The letter is reportedly similar to one received earlier this month by the University of Michigan, the first school among the eleven under investigation by HEW to receive demands for specific changes.

Michigan has agreed-after HEW placed bans on $4 million worth of government contracts-to pay back wages dating from October, 1968 "to any woman paid less than any man in comparable job categories."

What HEW asks of Harvard is basic ally an "affirmative action plan"-a program undertaken by the University to monitor itself. According to Charles P. Whitlock. associate dean of the College and formerly assistant to the President for civic and governmental relations, "the letter simply raises some questions from previous data. It is up to Harvard to come up with a plan to remedy it."

Harvard is not saying whether or not it intends to come up with such a plan-although an estimated $60 million worth of federal money may be affected.

Edward Wright Jr., assistant to the President for minority affairs-the University official responsible for Harvard's action-refused Sunday night to discuss the letter. "Whatever HEW sent has to do with its review of employment practices," he said.

HEW investigators visited Harvard last Spring as part of a routine study of minority group hiring practices and, according to Whitlook, simply for lack of time excluded two areas from the study-the relationship between the Medical School and its teaching hospitals regarding employment of blacks, and the whole area of possible sex discrimination.

Harvard has already submitted one affirmative action plan dealing with minority group employment to HEW,Whitlock said, but the plan was "unacceptable"-not, however, "rejected."

"Rejected means that federal funds are discontinued," Whitlock said. "Unacceptable simply means that the University makes it acceptable."

No plan regarding women has yet been submitted, according to Whitlock.

However, Roberta Benjamin, president of Boston Now-which joined the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) last November in charging that an earlier HEW report on Harvard's hiring practices was a "whitewash" of the University's treatment of women-said yesterday that "someone connected with Harvard" had told her that the University has thus far submitted two tentative plans dealing with women, both of which were rejected.

"The Michigan letter was the first time anyone ever heard of HEW requiring affirmative action plans on women," Whitlock said. "No plan has been rejected or submitted."

Harvard should have such a plan by the end of the month, he added.

The HEW investigations were sparked by pressure from WEAL, a Washington-based group including several Congresswomen, to enforce a 1968 government order prohibiting sex discrimination. WEAL has filed charges with the HEW against 200 colleges and universities.

The actual contents of the HEW letter to Harvard are a closely-guarded secret. According to one source, the "University is scrambling around to find data," and "HEW compiled pages and pages of statistics indicating where discrimination is prevalent."

Contacted Sunday, Dean Dunlop called the letter "full of crazy inaccuracies."

"Questions are raised that simply don't make very much sense," Dunlop said. "They have no understanding of the way Harvard works. For example, they cite lady and men teaching fellows and ask why they're paid different salaries, but ignore whether they're dealing with 2/5, 3/5 or 4/5 appointments."

"I know of absolutely no case where a Faculty member is paid less because of being a woman," he said.

According to one University source, the HEW action will cost Michigan $5.5 million to fund the evaluation and pay women reparations. The University of Pennsylvania, meanwhile-not yet approached by HEW-announced Friday several new guidelines and programs to provide equal opportunity to women in the university.

"Our action is less because of the Federal Government pressing us, but more because of the humanness that universities stand for," said Pennsylvania president Martin Meyerson. "We should be concerned not just with half of humanity, but with all of it."

The new guidelines provide that before any academic or non-academic appointment can be made, it must be shown that "the best women and other neglected groups have been sought to fill the position."