Starting with the 1970/71 academic year, the M.I.T. economics department launched an initiative to increase the enrollment of black students in its graduate program. E. Cary Brown, the head of the M.I.T. economics department described the first four years experience of the initiative in his response to an inquiry from the chairperson of the Berkeley economics department, Albert Fishlow.
For considerably more on this subject, see:
William Darity, Jr. and Arden Kreeger. The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department’s PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT in MIT and the Transformation of American Economics (Annual Supplement to Volume 46 of History of Political Economy, edited by E. Roy Weintraub. Duke University, 2014) pp. 371-335.
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M.I.T. Economics Department’s Experience With Expanding Graduate Enrollment of Black Students, 1970-74
September 18, 1974
Professor Albert Fishlow, Chairman
Department of Economics
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
Dear Professor Fishlow:
This letter is in reply to your letter of August 9, 1974, requesting information on our procedures with respect to qualified minority students.
As background, you should know that we had no special programs for minority candidates (although we had a few such students) until the entering class of 1970. At that time we took seriously an experiment to see if the number in our student body could be expanded. In the admissions process we set aside criteria we had used in the past, on the assumption that they were not as relevant to minority candidates. With the help and advice of several of our Deans for Minority Students and our own contacts with minority groups, we selected three students that first year (1970-71). Subsequently we admitted 3 blacks in 1971, 4 in 1972, 2 in 1973 and 4 this year.
Initially we organized a summer tutorial program that worked on the development of their mathematical skills and gave them a serious taste of what was to come in theory and statistics. This was supervised and participated in by several faculty and graduate students. We now make this a standard offering at students’ options, and this summer, for example, only one entering student requested this special help.
The tutorial program was extended into the regular academic year when students required it. We are still prepared to carry this out, but, in general, it has diminished essentially to zero.
There has been no modification in the academic program or requirements for minority students, nor any tempering of standards. They have been urged to take a less heavy program than the ordinary student—to stretch out preparation for their examinations. Typically they added about a year to the preparations time, but that, too, seems to be less necessary.
We have had many discussions with black students to try to achieve better communication and awareness of mutual problems. What started as essentially a student-faculty committee has evolved into a Black Graduate Economics Association. This association, on its own volition, prepared a video tape presentation for the purposes of encouraging minority high school students to go on to college in economics, to encourage minority college student to go on to graduate school, and to encourage this group to come to M.I.T. There was much informal recruiting by the black students. When admitted candidates visited Cambridge to determine what graduate school to attend, the program would be essentially organized by some of our black students. They have been extremely important in establishing an environment congenial to black students, and conveying their enthusiasm about the program.
The relations have been good with the black students, especially as between faculty and black students. There have been some student problems, feelings of exclusion and the like, that existed last year. The precise source of these difficulties we have not been able to ascertain. We are also aware that black women have had special complaints that neither the black males nor the faculty could fully understand. Our keeping communications open has perhaps depended on luck, but certainly also depended heavily on particular black students here and on particular faculty and the administrative officer who have made substantial amounts of time available to them and who have helped with their social and living problems.
One problem should be pointed out to you. Much of graduate instruction is self instruction by students in study groups. The black students complained at first that they had no leader, no one they could emulate, no one who could answer their problems. This has changed as the quality of preparation has improved, but it is something that I would urge you to keep in mind. A second problem with high incidence is the difficulty of family adjustment (and most of our minority students have families) to the demands of academic life (including work for many of the wives).
We have no special departmental resources for minority students. M.I.T. has some resources, usually for new students, and there are the national minority fellowships that many of our students have won. Otherwise, they are supported by general graduate financial aid at M.I.T. or in the Department.
Finally, you might look briefly at the record of the minority students. Of the three who entered in 1970, on went to another University to get a Master’s degree (after two years here), another transferred to a Master’s program in Urban Studies at M.I.T. (after two years). The third passed his general examinations a year ago, but has made little progress on his dissertation. Of the second year admittees, two have passed generals and are at work on theses, the third is still in school after being out for a year. The 1972 group includes two who partially failed their generals, two who will be taking them this year. Of the 1973 group, one transferred to another graduate school and one will take generals this year.
I am not sure how I would describe our program. It is viable; there are enough students as a group so they do not feel they should drop out or transfer; morale seems to be high. On the other hand, we have put much time and resources into the program and do not yet have candidates who have completed the program. We have had the satisfaction of seeing the quality of preparation and the enthusiasm rise. We are also sure that we will have a half dozen Ph.D.’s from this minority group in the next three or four years.
I am sending you a copy of our current graduate brochure which contains more detailed information than the catalogue. Professor Robert L. Bishop is Chairman of the Graduate Committee on Admissions, and Professor Peter A. Diamond is Chairman of the Graduate Committee.
Sincerely yours,
E. Cary Brown, Head
ECB/ss
Enclosure
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections. Department of Economics Records. Box 1, Folder “Women + Minorities”.
Image Source: “E. Cary Brown, fiscal policy expert, dies at 91“. M.I.T. News. June 27, 2007.