After Intense Minority Recruitment, Record Number of Black Students in Class of 1997

For the Harvard admissions office, admitting and matriculating a new class involves recruiting the most diverse and talented students in the world. And for an admissions office with a track record that has been less than exemplary in attracting talented Black students in recent years, the Class of 1997 is a winner.

The 1,606 first years are 44 percent women and 56 percent male. There is a record number of valedictorians in the Class of 1997 and each student had to complete with about 13,864 others, an applicant pool larger than last year's by 800.

But it is the record high numbers of Black admits that make the Class of 1997 an accomplishment for the admissions office. Reeling from the Class of 1996, which had the lowest number of Black matriculants since 1969, the admissions office managed to repair its record with the Class of 1997, which has the highest number of Black students in the College's history.

About 1 percent of the first-year class are Native American, 3.2 percent are Hispanic American, 3.6 percent are Mexican American, less than 2 percent are Puerto Ricans, 16.8 percent are Asian Americans and 10.3 percent are African Americans. The percentage Asian Americans is the only decrease, falling from last year's record of 20 percent of the Class of 1996.

Despite this year's success, Harvard continues to struggle to convince admitted minorities to matriculate. Several Black admits to the Class of 1997 chose to matriculate elsewhere told The Crimson last spring Harvard was not their pick because of rumors of racism and intolerance on campus.

"My job is encouraging people to see Harvard as an option. When I see students I like who are good students, I want to tell then to come here," said Ouzama N. Nicholson '94, an undergraduate admissions recruiter and co-chair of the student advisory council of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations last year. "But may be the best advice I could give them is not to come here."

Amillah Pinnock '97 said last spring that she encountered racism at Harvard even before she officially matriculated. At the Army Navy Store on Mass. Ave., she and her friends were called "niggers" by another customer.

Joy D. Jones, a first year at Duke University this year, would have been among the 1,606 registering first-years today, but says she thought the atmosphere at the College would be hostile to Black students.

"I felt people there would look at me and think I'm only there because of affirmative action," she said from her home in Los Angeles last spring. "That's something I would have to deal with every day of my life."

The Class of 1997 marks the first year of an intensified campaign by Harvard to recruit minorities and to disspell perceptions that race relations at Harvard are strained. Last year, campus minority organizations banded together to protest the lack of diversity on a Junior Parents' Weekend panel. They issued a list of demands, including more minority tenured professors, on a flyer titled "The Peculiar Institution."

Telephone calls to all minority admits, special letters and brochures for minorities and a second-round SAT test score search have inflated the applicant pools.

These special efforts, however, have placed admissions policies and even the merit of minority students under scrutiny.

In April, a white applicant from Birmingham, Ala., who was rejected by Harvard, filed a complaint to the Office of Civil Rights charging reverse discrimination. In the complaint, his mother cites the example of a Black classmate who was admitted with allegedly lower standardized test scores and a "less strenuous" course load. [Please see story page B-1.]

But admissions officers and University officials defend admissions policies. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67 says minority status is one factor, but not the only factor in admitting a student.

"You are here because we are convinced that you will thrive here," Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson told first-years and parents at the opening exercises in Tercentenary Theatre yesterday. "If you have doubts, just trust us."