University of Virginia Library

Fund Reduction Threatens
Black Graduate Recruitment

By Dave Schubel
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Severe reductions in funds for full
time fellowships threaten to impair the
University's recruitment of black graduate
students. William A. Elwood, Assistant
to the President for Special Programs,
now searching for alternative
revenue sources, stated Friday, "We're
really caught in the squeeze."

Most of the foundations which have
provided the economic support for
fellowships are now pouring their money

into universities and educational projects
located in urban areas. The University,
due to its outlying location, simply does
not qualify, Mr. Elwood pointed out.

Woodrow Wilson Fellowships which
recently numbered over two thousand,
have fallen below the one thousand range.
These Fellowships find their financial
base in the Ford Foundation. The Federal
Work-Study program has been cut back
by thirty per cent at the University, and
NDEA funds have also been significantly
lessened.

Diminution of these funds comes at a
time when it is important for all
universities to attract as many black
graduate students as possible, Mr. Elwood
continued Black colleges as well as other
institutions striving for further integration
cannot find enough black
teachers. Older black graduate students
are extremely necessary in the university
context for the undergraduates to relate
to.

Significant Role

As an outstanding institution in the
South, Mr. Elwood contends that the
University can play a significant role in
infusing the region with creative
approaches to old problems, by taking
black college graduates and training them
for work in the field of education.

By bringing a new orientation to rural
education in this region, Mr. Elwood
indicated that undereducation, one of the
root causes of the urban ghetto, would be
dealt with. Mr. Elwood argues that the
South has the best opportunity to deal
with racial questions.

While the ghetto atmosphere is hard to
break, the South, being more spread out,
can better facilitate an inter-relation
between the races. In the South, the
problems of the poor whites and the poor
blacks are extremely similar, thus lending
themselves to similar solutions. The
northern urban context contains many
mitigating factors which complicate
efforts to cope with problems there.

Much rests on an increased number of
well-educated blacks, Mr. Elwood stated
emphatically. However bottlenecks such
as the cutback in fellowship funds
coupled with the limited number of black
universities, make that goal long in
coming.

Only one black institution, Atlanta
University, gives a Ph.D. in English, and
there are only two black medical schools
in the nation. Clearly the problem hinges
on drawing more blacks into other,
existing institutions.

Black Decentralization

In attempting to do that, there has
been a great decentralization of black
recruitment programs. Previously the
programs were dominated by the large
private universities such as Harvard, but
now the "big 10" schools as well as state
schools like the University are making the
effort.

Though he is not sure where he will
garner the new sources of revenue, Mr.
Elwood feels that significant progress has
been made with the growing awareness
within the University and throughout the
state of the scope of the problems to be
dealt with.