News
Harvard Alumni Email Forwarding Services to Remain Unchanged Despite Student Protest
News
Democracy Center to Close, Leaving Progressive Cambridge Groups Scrambling
News
Harvard Student Government Approves PSC Petition for Referendum on Israel Divestment
News
Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 Elected Co-Chair of Metropolitan Mayors Coalition
News
Cambridge Residents Slam Council Proposal to Delay Bike Lane Construction
While presidents of colleges throughout Massachusetts presented the case for existing admissions practices, representatives of the Teachers Union and the Student Intercultural Fellowship, a metropolitan organization founded at Harvard, offered evidence of discrimination before the Legislative Committee on Education at the State House.
Expressing the Teachers Union viewpoint, F. O. Matthiessen, professor of History and Literature, and president of the Cambridge local, said last night that a bill providing for a commission to investigate discrimination in state colleges would be a "perfectly natural extension of the Fair Employment Practices Commission philosophy in the realm of education."
"Students should be selected on the basis of educational aptitude," he said.
The bill would also eliminate use of racial or religious grounds in choosing faculty members. "Anyone who has been in education for any length of time would know that discrimination does exist in that area," Professor Matthiessen said.
Only documented proofs of unfair practices offered at the hearing were made by the Student Intercultural Fellowship. Ernest M. Howell '47, co-chairman of the group, said last night that the Fellowship submitted a survey of discrimination in business and secretarial schools in Boston.
"We think that a fair employment practices commission will uncover enough cases to prepare a foundation for effective legislation combating the quota system," Howell said.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.