B-School Efforts Pay Off

Business School efforts to increase minority student enrollment seem to be paying off. This week, the Business faculty voted to drop special minority admissions procedures, because they are no longer needed to ensure enrollment of black, Spanish surname, Asian-American and Native American students.

The "second stage" review process, which since 1970 accepted some minority students rejected in initial admissions procedures, is now obsolete because there are so many qualified minority applicants, Business School administrators said this week.

Anita R. Goodman, co-chairman of the Afro-American Student Union, said yesterday qualified minority candidates have always been present, but past recruitment efforts were insufficient to get them to apply.

"The Business School just didn't know where to look for them," Goodman said. "Now they are starting to find them."

The Afro-American Student Union supported the Business move to bring back "open admissions" without second stage review for minority applicants.

Richard F. Meyer '54, professor of Business Administration and chairman of the subcommittee which drew up the proposal for return to open admissions, said this week the new policy would still mean increased minority enrollment.

Increasing enrollment will continue to bring in more qualified minority applicants, Meyer said, without the problems created by the two-stage system.

In 1972, some minority students who may have been unable to handle the academic, emotional and social pressures of the Business School were accepted under the two-stage admissions policy, Meyer said. A "disturbingly large" number of these failed, he said.

But by the spring of 1976, so many qualified minority candidates applied that no two-stage process was necessary to provide minority enrollment, Dean W. Currie '69, director of Business School admissions, said this week.

Business School administrators said they hope that this trend will continue, and that the number of qualified minority candidates will continue to increase. This hope was reflected in this week's faculty vote abandoning two-stage admissions.