University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor:

Student Participation Requested
In Spring Recruitment Program

As you know, a program has
been set up in which University
students visit their hometown high
schools over Spring Break to recruit
promising applicants (especially
black and underprivileged students)
to the University.

The set-up of this system is
simple. Interested students are
requested to register at the Student
Council office in Newcomb Hall by
5 p.m. Friday, March 14. To
register, a recommendation from a
faculty member or the head of any
University organization (including
fraternity presidents and senior
counselors) must be submitted. A
meeting of all registered students is
scheduled for Monday, March 17,
at 7:30 in room 4A, Newcomb
Hall. At that time Dean Ern will
give instructions and recruitment
materials will be handed out.

Unfortunately, the actual response
to this program, in the form
of registration, has been poor. This
recruitment program requires a
relatively small amount of individual
effort; if successful, its benefits
for the University community
should be great. For this reason, I
ask all of you, especially first and
second-year men, to carefully consider
participation. It is important
that we be willing to dedicate
ourselves to working for a better-balanced
student body, as well as
asking the administration to work
for such a goal.

Negro Leader

It always makes one feel uncomfortable
to be referred to as "a
Negro Leader" since it may be
interpreted to mean that I speak for
the Negroes in Charlottesville. This,
of course, is far from the truth. The
opinions which were expressed are
my own, although there may be
others who concur.

Since I did not see the article
(March 10) before it was published
I want to clarify one statement
which was misquoted - "We are
the only ones completely cut off
from our heritage, the only ones
who brought nothing with us, etc."

The statement should have read:
"We were the only ones deliberately
cut off from our heritage, even
to the extent of acquiring a new
language, and new names." We did
bring very much with us and we did
not develop here entirely independent
of our past.

Gibson Attack

I write as an alumnus and
former athlete at the University in
regard to the recent attack on
Coach Bill Gibson.

It concerns me greatly that some
of the basketball players have
chosen the course of action they
have, that is airing their grievances
through the press as opposed to
talking directly with Coach Gibson.
As a former coach (high school, not
at the University), I cannot respect
them as men for their course of
action.

People who know or who care
about our basketball program know
that there are two sides to every
story, especially those concerning
former players who some people
claim could have helped our program.
The "other side of the story"
ranges from academics to attitude
to lack of talent (talent to be a
contender in the Atlantic Coast
Conference, that is) or a combination
of the three. I do not feel it is
my place to discuss the individuals.

My purpose in writing is to
condemn the methods used by the
discontented basketball players and
to appeal to the University community
not to side with a group
who would use such methods when
Bill was not given the common
courtesy to discuss the problems
privately with them.

White Guilt

Professor Sedgwick in his letter
on "Rational Discussion" (Cavalier
Daily 3/10/69) claims that the
"arguments" of Professors Breit,
Culbertson, and Moore (Cavalier
Daily 3/5/69) contain various racist
implications which could be used
by the sluggish university
administration as justification for
not doing anything at all about
changing its racial policies..."
Surely our critic of "rational
discussion" does not imply that,
irrespective of the validity of these
arguments (he never does identify
the serious racist implications),
they are socially unacceptable because
a "sluggish" administration
"could" use them for evil racist
purposes. Since Professor Sedgwick
does not tell us the point of his
assertion, i.e. what should be done
about arguments with such implications,
we are left to conclude that
he means: such arguments should
not have been made in the first
place. I suggest that to ignore the
basic validity of the arguments
about racial quotas and minimum
wages, offered by Professors Breit,
Culbertson, and Moore, is to ignore
the consequences of alternative sets
of means used to achieve stated
ends. That is to subscribe to the old
evil "the ends justify the means."

Professor Sedgwick asks "is it
tragically misguided to demand the
admission of more black students,
more women, and more students
from disadvantaged backgrounds...?"
My answer and the
answer I believe my colleagues
would offer is "NO it is not." His
question, however, is not in the
context of the tragic misguidance
Professors B., C., and M were
referring to. They were concerned
with an admissions policy that
linked the statistical representation
of personal characteristics at the
University with the statistical representation
of these characteristics
state wide or nation wide. I believe
this point was very clear in the B.,
C., and M. letter. Again, Professor
Sedgwick appears indifferent to
distinctions between alternative sets
of means for achieving stated ends
(racial, sexual, religious (?)...etc.
integration of the University).

Finally, to the minimum wage.
There is overwhelming scientific
evidence that minimum wage laws
and unemployment (including underemployment)
are highly correlated.
If a man receiving wages
and income below "the subsistence
level" ($30 per month?) will
conclude that the poor have no
place in society and resort to
criminal attacks would he not be
even more likely to make this
conclusion when he is unemployed
at $1.60 per hour than when he is
employed at $1.00 per hour? This
scientific implication does not
imply that persons earning $1.00
per hour must receive an income
solely from their wages. If their
annual income at a market de-
mined wage rate, is too low by your
(the community) judgment transfer
money, goods, or training to them
in an amount that will satisfy you.
Once again, raising people out of
"poverty" can be achieved in many
ways. Some of the apparent means,
however, have implications that
increase rather than reduce poverty.

I submit that a callous disregard
for the implications of alternative
"means" of achieving stated goals is
to sacrifice social justice for the
absolution of white guilt at any
price.