FAS Report States Inaccuracies

The University's recently-released 1994 Affirmative Action Report underestimates the number of minority Ph.D. recipients nationwide according to a senior official at the American Council on Education.

The FAS section of the report, released two weeks ago, states in the five-year period between 1987 and 1992, "the rates of new Ph.D.'s among Blacks and Hispanics actually decreased, and the rate of new Ph.D.'s for Naive Americans remained virtually unchanged at close to zero."

The report attributes any lack of progress on the part of the University in hiring minority faculty members to a decrease in the pool o minority Ph.D. recipients nationwide.

But Reginald Wilson senior scholar at the American Council, a national research group in Washington D.C. which collects statistics on minority hiring said yesterday that the numbers of new Hispanic and Native American Ph.D's have actually increased by 3.4 percent and 13.8 percent respectively between 1991 and 1992.

Wilson also said that although the five percent decrease in the number of Black Ph.D.'s is disturbing, it is not as drastic as Harvard makes it out to be."

"Harvard's numbers just don't sound impressive," Wilson said. "I guess they feel like if they hire one minority, they should light a candle."

Assistant Dean for Affirmative Action Joseph F. McCarthy, said a possible explanation to the discrepancy between the two sets of figures may be that Wilson is taking into account Ed.D (doctorates in education ) recipients--which do not factor into Harvard's figures on minority Ph.D pools.

Vice President for Affirmative Action James S. Hoyte said the University probably received its figures from the American Council, but Wilson said yesterday that his organization did not provide the inaccurate figures in the report.

McCarthy, who wrote the FAS section of the report, said he could not remember the source of the data. He said. the statistics may have been provided by the National Research Council also located in Washington D.C.

But since the Research Council is a branch of the National Academy of the Sciences,they only collect data for Ph.D.'s in thesciences, a spokesperson for the Research Councilsaid yesterday.

A Recognized Problem

Despite what the University called encouragingnumbers of minority faculty hirings McCarthy saidhe recognized that Harvard still faces a problemof under-representation with regard to tenuredminorities.

"There's' no question that we're not doingenough," McCarthy said. "If we were doing enough,"McCarthy said. "If we were doing enough then wewouldn't be worried about it."

Hoyte said there are several factors which haveimpeded Harvard's minority tenuring process in thepast, including the location of Harvard in theBoston-metro area.

"For people of color, the location factor worksstrongly against Harvard when candidates compareit with some other offer they have in new York,for example," Hoyte said.

McCarthy said that in order to attract minorityfaculty, the University must present a positivepicture of minority life at Harvard. This couldexplain why McCarthy played down the negativeaspects of the minority faculty picture in thereport.

"We made an effort to be optimistic in thebeginning and waited until later to point out theproblems," McCarthy said.

The University needs to establish What McCarthycalled a "critical mass" of minority faculty thatwill feed upon itself.

And McCarthy said that the University is doinga lot both to train and to hire academics.

Harvard has one of the few graduate programs inthe country whose minority numbers havesignificantly increased in recent years. McCarthysaid that more aggressive recruiting tactics andthe establishment of financial support mechanismstargeting minorities were largely responsible forthe growth.

Between 1989 and 1993 according to the report,Harvard's admission of Black and Hispanic Ph.D.candidates more than doubled--Black admits rosefrom 15 to 38; Hispanic admits rose from 8 to 22.The numbers are still extremely low, McCarthyadmitted, but they're a start.

McCarthy said undergraduates are encouraged toconsider academic careers through programs whichenable undergraduates to work closely with facultyon research projects.

McCarthy and Hoyte also cited graduate schoolfellowships designed to provide financial supportfor the potential students, who according toMcCarthy need it most: under representedminorities.

"Typically, minorities graduate from collegewith considerably more debt than students of themajority, and they have considerable fewerresources to fall back on," McCarthy said.

"These are the people we have to fight forbecause they probably see their professionalschool options as being more lucrative thus moreattractive," he added.

Hoyte said another factor which will encourageminority Ph.D. applicants is the perceivedascendancy of the Afro-American studies departmenthere.

"My anecdotal impression is that the conceptionof Harvard as having a new, invigorated interestin being on the cutting edge of a field like[Afro-Am] will help encourage minority scholars ofall levels and in all fields to consider cominghere," Hoyte said.

But despite Harvard's seeming progress inrecruiting minority Ph.D. candidates its apparentmisrepresentation of a national trend remainsdisturbing to Wilson who questions how far Harvardhas really come.

"While other research universities of equalprestige have been serious about tenuringminorities, Harvard's commitment to hiringminority faculty remains rhetorical," WilsonCharged

A Recognized Problem

Despite what the University called encouragingnumbers of minority faculty hirings McCarthy saidhe recognized that Harvard still faces a problemof under-representation with regard to tenuredminorities.

"There's' no question that we're not doingenough," McCarthy said. "If we were doing enough,"McCarthy said. "If we were doing enough then wewouldn't be worried about it."

Hoyte said there are several factors which haveimpeded Harvard's minority tenuring process in thepast, including the location of Harvard in theBoston-metro area.

"For people of color, the location factor worksstrongly against Harvard when candidates compareit with some other offer they have in new York,for example," Hoyte said.

McCarthy said that in order to attract minorityfaculty, the University must present a positivepicture of minority life at Harvard. This couldexplain why McCarthy played down the negativeaspects of the minority faculty picture in thereport.

"We made an effort to be optimistic in thebeginning and waited until later to point out theproblems," McCarthy said.

The University needs to establish What McCarthycalled a "critical mass" of minority faculty thatwill feed upon itself.

And McCarthy said that the University is doinga lot both to train and to hire academics.

Harvard has one of the few graduate programs inthe country whose minority numbers havesignificantly increased in recent years. McCarthysaid that more aggressive recruiting tactics andthe establishment of financial support mechanismstargeting minorities were largely responsible forthe growth.

Between 1989 and 1993 according to the report,Harvard's admission of Black and Hispanic Ph.D.candidates more than doubled--Black admits rosefrom 15 to 38; Hispanic admits rose from 8 to 22.The numbers are still extremely low, McCarthyadmitted, but they're a start.

McCarthy said undergraduates are encouraged toconsider academic careers through programs whichenable undergraduates to work closely with facultyon research projects.

McCarthy and Hoyte also cited graduate schoolfellowships designed to provide financial supportfor the potential students, who according toMcCarthy need it most: under representedminorities.

"Typically, minorities graduate from collegewith considerably more debt than students of themajority, and they have considerable fewerresources to fall back on," McCarthy said.

"These are the people we have to fight forbecause they probably see their professionalschool options as being more lucrative thus moreattractive," he added.

Hoyte said another factor which will encourageminority Ph.D. applicants is the perceivedascendancy of the Afro-American studies departmenthere.

"My anecdotal impression is that the conceptionof Harvard as having a new, invigorated interestin being on the cutting edge of a field like[Afro-Am] will help encourage minority scholars ofall levels and in all fields to consider cominghere," Hoyte said.

But despite Harvard's seeming progress inrecruiting minority Ph.D. candidates its apparentmisrepresentation of a national trend remainsdisturbing to Wilson who questions how far Harvardhas really come.

"While other research universities of equalprestige have been serious about tenuringminorities, Harvard's commitment to hiringminority faculty remains rhetorical," WilsonCharged