University of Virginia Library

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.