Pettigrew Challenges 'Racism' Of GSAS Black Fellowship Plan

"This policy is the most classic, elegant example of institutional racism I have ever seen," Thomas F. Pettigrew, professor of Social Psychology, said yesterday.

Pettigrew was referring to the procedures under which 15 Black Prize Fellowships for graduate study will be financed next year.

The Committee on Fellowships and Other Aids of the GSAS formulated the procedures, which were made public March 1 in a memorandum from Reginald H. Phelps '30, associate dean of the GSAS and chairman of the committee, to faculty members involved in graduate admissions.

Under the committee's plan, each graduate department would receive a flat share of the unrestricted pool of scholarship funds, which amount to approximately $700,000 for 1971-72. Out of this percentage the department would finance its first-and second-year Black Prize Fellows, as well as its ordinary graduate students.

"This plan penalizes exactly those departments which have recruited blacks," Pettigrew stated. "They are forced to choose between spending the same amount of money financing black fellows and financing a larger number of ordinary graduate students."

The Black Prize Fellowships, established by the Faculty in May 1969 in accordance with recommendations of the Rosovsky Report, run for five years and include $2800 for tuition and $2400 for living expenses each year.

The Fellowships are the largest awarded by the University to unmarried graduate students. As approved by the Faculty they take the form of cash grants rather than teaching fellowships. Fifteen Fellowships were offered for 1970-71 and 12 were filled.

"Originally we hoped that the money for these Fellowships would be 'new money'" Pettigrew said yesterday, "but Harvard has only been able to raise $20,000. I don't know why that is, but for 1971-72 we need about $120,000."

Thus, $100,000 for next year's Black Prize Fellowships will have to come out of the unrestricted scholarship funds of the GSAS.

Phelps, while conceding that the total amount of scholarship funds available is down ten per cent from last year, denied yesterday that the committee's plan represents any basic change from the policy followed in financing the Followships for 1970-71.

Pettigrew, on the other hand, claims that last year the departments were not made fully aware of the limitations on scholarship funds.

"It was never made clear that the Black Prize Fellowships were being charged against the departments' individual shares. I believe that last year compensations were made for departments enrolling Black Prize Fellows,and that there should be again," Pettigrew said.

"I can see how this plan would satisfy some of the departments which don't have many black applicants, such as Classics or German Literature, but these regulations absolutely kill us in Social Psychology," Pettigrew added.

Social Psychology, a division of Social Relations, this year has 12 first-year graduate students, three of whom are Black Prize Fellows.

Pettigrew has proposed an alternative plan for financing the Black Prize Fellows which he will present to a meeting of the Committee on Scholarships next Tuesday.

"Even their letting me present my plan represents a change in their original attitude that the procedures were set for good," Pettigrew said in reference to Phelps, who is also a lecturer in German, and John P. Elder, dean of the GSAS and professor of Greek and Latin.

Under Pettigrew's plan $50,000 of the $100,000 needed for the Fellowships would be deducted from the whole GSAS scholarship pool, and $50,000 would come from each department's share of the remaining $650,000.

"I see this as a compromise between what the Committee has proposed and the ideal solution." Pettigrew said, "but each department, whether or not it recruited blacks, would be contributing about seven per cent of its scholarship budget to the goal of having black graduated students at Harvard."

Acording to Thomas K. Sisson, assistant dean of the GSAS, present first-year Black Fellows are assured of continuing support, but there is no guarantee that individual departments will enroll new Black Prize Fellows, as opposed to a larger number of other graduate students, under the committee's plan.

"There will be hell to pay if we don't have 15 Fellows, but at this point these large Black Fellowships stand out like sore thumbs because of the terrible change in graduate school funding," Sisson said.