University of Virginia Library

Students Urged To Aid Recruiting

The student body must not get
caught in the trap of placing all of
the blame for the ineffectual
recruitment program on Council.
The Student Council can only lead
where the student body is willing to
follow. As was the case with the
local high school visitation program,
other students must volunteer
to carry out programs that
Council members do not have time
for. Many students are willing to
help council with projects but they
are waiting for the Council to
initiate those programs.

Several alternatives for black
recruitment programs are available
but they all require much more
action than just talking at Council
and committee meetings.

A few weekends during the year
could be organized to invite high
school guidance counselors to select
four or five juniors and seniors to
visit the university. This program
was carried out very successfully at
the University of Tennessee. It will
give many students a chance to
come to the university and draw
their own conclusions about its
image. This could easily be coordinated
with the admissions
office. The high schools could be
visited before and after the students
visit the university. Maybe this
would really impress on some of
Virginia's black high school students
how much we really want
them to go to school with us. But
Council, that would take work and
much time outside of your little
haven of discussion in Newcomb
Hall.

Since this idea did work at the
University of Tennessee maybe
other universities have tried different
methods to cure racial intolerance.
It would not take much time
to draft a letter to student council
presidents asking for suggestions
and examples of how they are
dealing with the same problem that
has plagued and is continuing to
plague most of the universities in
our country. It would be quite
pathetic if our Council president
were to receive a letter asking for
similar suggestions. He could only
answer that we've hired black
recruiters and that we frown on the
playing of "Dixie." This is far from
sufficient. Our Council must find
many new ways to make our black
recruitment program an effective
one.

One of the hardest problems to
solve will be that of out-of-state
black recruitment. It will not only
be hard to persuade a young
intelligent black student to come to
what was once known as one of the
bastions of southern conservatism,
but it will be hard to convince some
of our out-of-state alumni associations
to try and persuade him to
come. Much of the out-of-state
recruiting done by the admissions
office is either in conjunction with
or completely through alumni
associations. This recruitment usually
takes the form of high class
dinners at swanky clubs and interviews
in plush law offices. Naturally
this gives a hint that the economically
deprived wouldn't fit in at
the university. Even after you are
accepted, a cocktail party is given
for the entering first-year men. It
doesn't take long for high school
students to spread the word about
the methods of recruitment for
different universities. Nothing is
done to try and bring out-of-state
black students to the university
inmost major cities. To solve this
problem more should be done than
letter writing to alumni. The
admissions office must be informed
that, not only is this an archaic way
of recruiting but it makes many
students feel that our university is
only for the well-to-do white high
school students. Black students
make this assumption since only
well-to-do white men recruit them
in their well-to-do white ways. The
Student Council should encourage
students to try to convey the idea
that their method of recruitment
must change. If the alumni associations
agree and come up with an
acceptable substitute plan - fine.
However, if they do not, then the
students from that area should be
organized to do there own recruiting
while they are home for
vacations. A specific interest should
be made in the predominantly
black high schools and in the lower
economic areas.

These are only a few suggestions
to our Student Council as to how
they can bring more black students
to the university. They all require
much discussions but they also
require much work that will have to
be done outside of the Student
Council offices. The students at this
university are proud that its council
has taken a definite stand against
racism. However, they are tired of
hearing the Council bickering week
after week about "Dixie." The
Council has taken the correct stand
but they are facing in the wrong
direction. They are looking at the
past and trying to change past
actions. Turn around Council, look
at the future. Get away from your
conference table. Get out and put
some new and imaginative ideas to
work. Encourage more black students
in state and out-of-state
students to come to our university.
When you have done this, we will
have done away with the racist
image that Council seems so concerned
about.