Eight Cliffies to Recruit More Blacks From South

Eight black cliffies will spend Spring vacation recruiting black students from the South.

Doris Mitchell, special assistant for Admissions at Radcliffe, said yesterday that six recruiting trips have been planned which will cover North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, and Florida.

Intensive

The trips represent the most intensive effort Radcliffe has made to recruit black students from the South. Previously student recruiters concentrated on recruiting in eastern and midwestern cities.

Adele Simmons, special assistant of Admissions at Radcliffe, made a Southern recruiting trip in January. In a report describing the trip, she said that "the South, and particularly the white South, is insular and suspicious of anything Northern; promoting Radcliffe is, to some Southerners, comparable to pushing pot."

Mrs. Simmons's report suggested that, since many Southern schools give their students little information about any college possibilities in the North, recruiters should advise students about Northern colleges other than Radcliffe.

Existence

Theresa R. Watkins '72, one of the black students who will be recruiting this Spring, said that the purpose of the trip is "to convey what kinds of experiences we've had at Radcliffe." She said that many black students had never heard of Radcliffe, and "that's what the trip's about--letting them know Radcliffe exists."

Harvard Well-Received

James A. Gardner, assistant director of Admissions at Harvard, said yesterday that he received an enthusiastic response this year when he recruited in Mississippi, particularly in black schools.

But another admissions officer, Seamus P. Malin '62, who recruited this year in Tennessee and Georgia, cautioned that the success of this year's recruiting could not be determined until applications start coming in. "You can make critical contact now," he said, "but it's the follow up that really counts."