University of Virginia Library

Saunier Summarizes Struggle With Discrimination

By Chuck Woody
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

A summary of recent published policies and
administrative actions to prevent discrimination has been
issued in an effort to clarify the University's position on
its racial problems.

The report, issued by the Office of University
Relations, is not a response to the 11 points submitted to
President Shannon by the Student Council, said Paul
Saunier, Jr., director of University relations. "The facts
were all made public some time ago. However, continuing
questions indicate that although increasing numbers of
people are now interested in the subject, the complete
picture is known only to those persons who for the past
year were careful and retentive readers of local and
student publications, and who also know the facts
presented at public meetings," he explained.

University Facilities

Regarding University facilities, it was required that a
statement of non-discriminatory membership policy must
be signed by the officers of any organization that uses
University space for events it sponsors. (For years, all
University-sponsored events have been operated on a
non-discriminatory basis.)

On April 22, 1968, the Comptroller advised deans,
chairmen of departments, and all administrative officers
that the University's policy requires that all official
University groups refrain from using facilities which
practice discrimination, and stated that the Bursar would
interpret certification of a voucher for official entertaining
as an officer's personal assurance that the facility
involved is non-discriminatory.

Applications by faculty members for mortgages
financed by University funds include a promise by the
faculty member that his re-sale of the house would be
without restriction as to race, color, religion or national
origin.

This information was transmitted to the Charlottesville-Albemarle
Real Estate Board so that the realtors of
the community would be aware of unrestricted sales that
may eventually be available from this circumstance, and
that unrestricted housing must be widely available in the
community if the University is to attract qualified black
persons to the faculty and staff.

Off-Grounds Housing listings, now provided to
students, faculty and staff as a service, are not accepted
on properties where the agents or owners do not certify
that there will be no discrimination because of race, color,
religion or national origin.

Disadvantaged Students

In 1967 the University made a detailed proposal to a
major foundation for support for a program for students
with culturally limited backgrounds. The foundation
informed the University that shifts in the priorities of the
foundation to the immediate problems in urban slums
made it impossible for the foundation to consider the
University's proposal, and that federal funds might be
available.

The University at once undertook to seek federal
support for the plan, only to be advised it could not be
funded by any federal program then existing. In July,
1968, President Shannon described the federal refusal to
the foundation and asked if there was any possibility that
priorities would then permit reconsideration.

He pointed out that the University's Upward Bound
program encourages disadvantaged students toward higher
education, but the additional program would be
concerned with admitting them into the University and
assisting them to overcome their disadvantages.

The foundation's reply was still negative. As soon as
guidelines for the new federal program in this field are
available, a new proposal will be entered. The Rockefeller
Foundation was the organization involved.

Black Students

In a survey in the spring of 1968, it was determined
that the principal factors reported in the choice of
colleges by Negro high school seniors are, in order of
effectiveness, recommendations by black college students,
recommendations by high school guidance counselors,
and sympathetic reception and realistic evaluations of
their potential by college admissions personnel.

The University's 1968-69 program for admission of

black high school graduates therefore has been based on
three components:

(1) In the fall of 1968, Negro University students
organized, with the assistance of the Admissions Office,
to visit high schools in December and January. A special
recruiting pamphlet, written last fall by some of the
University's black students in a manner they think will be
effective, was published and distributed.

Because of restrictions on use of state funds for special
"recruiting" literature, and because no funds were
available for a pamphlet such as this one, it was privately
financed by faculty and administration members and a
student organization, responding to private requests by
Mr. Saunier, assigned by President Shannon to coordinate
the University's "equal opportunity" and "non-discrimination"
programs.

(2) In November, 1968, the University, with private
funds now exhausted, provided housing and meals to
Virginia high school guidance counselors who accepted
invitations to come to Charlottesville to discuss
opportunities at the University for disadvantaged
students.

(3) In December, in response to many students'
petitions Ernest H. Ern, dean of admissions, named Fred
T. Stokes, a Negro, as an assistant to the dean. Mr. Stokes
has a background in counseling and Virginia public school
administration. He works half-time in the admissions
office while he is completing his master's degree. He
administers a special program of communication with and
evaluation of black and disadvantaged applicants.

The three-part program is also integrated with the
special recruiting program of the department of athletics,
which has offered grants-in-aid to Negro athletes for the
past three years.

Further work in the Office of undergraduate
admissions by qualified Negro faculty members and
administrators will depend primarily on their availability.
The U.S. Office of Civil Rights, in the U.S. Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, has been assured that no
position specifically for a black admissions officer, or any
other officer designated by color, has been or will be
established by the University.

It has been stated to H.E.W. that the employment
policy of the University is completely non-discriminatory,
and that the need for special communications with special
groups of applicants for both admissions and employment
is being met within this policy.

It has been stated that the position as assistant to the
dean is for a person with special capabilities, and the fact
that the holder of the position is a Negro (and a half-time
graduate student) is an asset in that part of his current
assignment which calls for interviews with black students,
but it is not an absolute requirement for the position.

Employment

The President has regularly reminded deans and
administrators, beginning with a special called meeting in
1965, that adequate efforts must be made in all divisions
of the University to prevent any discriminatory practices
and to provide all possible employment and promotional
opportunities for applicants and employees without
regard to race, color, or national origin.

Also beginning in 1965, the University established a
procedure by which employees alleging discrimination
were authorized to consult directly with the director of
personnel, who would investigate such complaints
personally and report results directly to the President.
Complaints were few, and no action at the President's
level was necessary.

In 1968 a special training program for disadvantaged
employees was established, and three "Equal Opportunity
Officers" established in different locations in the
University to consult with persons who had complaints
related to discrimination, to report their findings to the
director of personnel (who would still be directly
available for initial complaints'.)

The director would report to the President cases in
which the complainant was not satisfied with the decision
of the director.

President Shannon has also made a conscious effort to
prevent discrimination, according to the Office of
University Relations. He has made a number of public
addresses, such as to 81 guidance counselors from Virginia
schools who were invited to the University to discuss
mutual concerns for the culturally disadvantaged.

The President also spoke at the State Convention of
the NAACP which was held at the University on October
20. He told the delegates that the University wanted to
give an education to the young, "to give them the start in
life that was denied their elders in the society from which
we are now emerging."