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University of Iowa Committee on Human Rights policies, 1958-1986

1968-11-15 University Human Rights Committee to President Howard Bowen Page 5

-5-

broken, true impartiality and equality mean that special efforts to open up educational opportunities will have to be directed toward minority groups, such as Negroes and Indians, which society has suppressed and oppressed. In short, as society is now constituted, in order to give equal treatment to the disadvantaged, the University must work harder to recruit minority students from such places as Waterloo's East High. 

B. How to Recruit the Students 
The Committee proposes that a full time person (preferably from some minority group) 7 be employed to recruit minority students. It is the Committee's understanding that although some staff time is presently devoted to the recruitment of the socio-economically disadvantaged and that there are a couple of hundred (mostly Caucasians) from this group on campus, that this recruitment is not coordinated or centralized. The assigning of a person to this task is essential if it is to be done effectively, since the recruiting of disadvantaged students will be a time consuming process. It is well known that children from lower socio-economic families tend to fall outside of the motivation patterns which stem from middle-class values and life styles and which, consequently, tend to be self-operative for middle class children. As one important instance, Negro and lower class children tend to be less familiar with application procedures and the like. Thus, an effective recruiting program will require repeated visits to a school, first to talk to the students and later to the parents. In addition, the critical high school guidance people will often have to be retrained to the opportunities for Negro children which may have been systematically discounted in the past. Developing a useful continuing relationship with the guidance people, too, will take time. Thus, although it is the hope

7 Dean Rhodes reports that Purdue University has employed a Negro in such a position with considerable success.

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-5- broken, true impartiality and equality mean that special efforts to open up educational opportunities will have to be directed toward minority groups, such as Negroes and Indians, which society has suppressed and oppressed. In short, as society is now constituted, in order to give equal treatment to the disadvantaged, the University must work harder to recruit minority students from such places as Waterloo's East High. B. How to Recruit the Students The Committee proposes that a full time person (preferably from some minority group) 7 be employed to recruit minority students. It is the Committee's understanding that although some staff time is presently devoted to the recruitment of the socio-economically disadvantaged and that there are a couple of hundred (mostly Caucasians) from this group on campus, that this recruitment is not coordinated or centralized. The assigning of a person to this task is essential if it is to be done effectively, since the recruiting of disadvantaged students will be a time consuming process. It is well known that children from lower socio-economic families tend to fall outside of the motivation patterns which stem from middle-class values and life styles and which, consequently, tend to be self-operative for middle class children. As one important instance, Negro and lower class children tend to be less familiar with application procedures and the like. Thus, an effective recruiting program will require repeated visits to a school, first to talk to the students and later to the parents. In addition, the critical high school guidance people will often have to be retrained to the opportunities for Negro children which may have been systematically discounted in the past. Developing a useful continuing relationship with the guidance people, too, will take time. Thus, although it is the hope 7 Dean Rhodes reports that Purdue University has employed a Negro in such a position with considerable success.