Minority Programs Are 'Vulnerable,' B-School Dean Tells Black Conference

Predicting decreased recruitment and a depressed conomy, John H. McArthur, dean of the Business School, told an audience of 300 at the B-school yesterday that financial difficulties could make programs to help minorities "vulnerable" during the coming decade.

McArthur spoke at the opening of the ninth annual career-alumni conference on "Blacks in Corporate America--Challenges of the Eighties," sponsored by the Afro-American Student Union and the Black Alumni Association at the B-school.

Though the B-school is well-endowed in comparison to other schools, the oversupply of graduates with MBA-degrees and a dismal economic climate could cause declining enrollment and force the school to make some cutbacks, McArthur added.

Dr. Price Cobbs, a research analyst for Pacific Management Systems and a guest speaker at the conference, told the nearly all-Black audience of the difficulties Blacks have faced in the nearly all-white business world.

"Black Corporate managers clearly have the feeling they are viewed as incompetent until they prove the opposite," he said, adding that Blacks see themselves as "overscrutinized and given less margin for error."

He added that white business executives admit this policy, giving the example of one who said he gave less-fulfilling and less rewarding assignments to Blacks.

Cobb, who has done studies of and talked to representatives from about 75 of the top 150 Fortune 500 corporations, also told the audience that Blacks find it difficult to succeed because of the lack of other Blacks in high managerial positions.

"The inability of many Blacks to form a true mentor relationship," prevents them from advancing in the hierarchy, he said.

Because they often have few social relations with other corporate managers, many Blacks believe they are excluded from informal lines of communication, Cobb added.

In his research, Cobb has found that credentials have little effect on the preconceptions that Blacks face in the business world. Blacks "operate against a backdrop of negative assumptions" and are rarely fast-tracked in the companies, he said.

Sheryl Adkins, a second year B-school student and director of the conference, said it provides opportunities for deferred, current and prospective students to learn more about Blacks in the business world.

She added that the alumni also like to get together and share their experiences.