Women's Group Plans Protest Over Affirmative Action Plan

The Currier House Women's Group will circulate a fact sheet and a petition protesting Harvard's affirmative action plan and requesting that a student-faculty committee be established to examine the plan's guidelines for hiring women.

The Affirmative Action Plan, required of any organization receiving federal funds, must prove an organization's intent not to discriminate in its employment practices.

Natalie L. Wexler '76, a spokesman for the Currier group, said yesterday that the present Harvard plan, approved by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) in mid-November, constitutes insufficient goals and timetables for hiring women.

"The increases indicated in the plan do not constitute the 'material, substantial' increase required by executive order, and the projected action for Harvard's non-teaching positions is no more 'affirmative,'"Wexler said.

Pressure From Within

The plan projects an increase in tenured women faculty from 14 to 20 by 1976. Harvard now has 756 tenured faculty members. The plan also calls for 19 additional women junior faculty members by 1976. At the present, fifty out of Harvard's 514 junior faculty members are women.

The group's fact sheet says it appears unlikely that HEW will cut off Harvard's funds so that "pressure must come from within the University in demanding a plan that more conforms to the letter and the spirit-of the law."

Phyllis Keller, Equal Employment Officer for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said she disagreed with the Currier group's appraisal of the plan. "The plan is totally acceptable," Keller said. "Harvard is doing as well if not better than competitive universities with regards to affirmative action."

Walter Leonard, special assistant to President Bok, said yesterday he considered the plan to be too comprehensive to assess quickly. He also said, "HEW found our plan adequate, but groups are entitled to their opinion."

The regional officer for HEW, John Bynoe, who approved Harvard's plan last November, said yesterday. "We're glad when any school gives us a plan that meets the minimum standards of acceptability. We've been working with some schools for two years and still have not gotten that."

Bynoe also said that affirmative action was designed to move schools to a more acceptable position, but that no one could expect to reach "a zenith" in one year. "This is just a beginning," Bynoe said.

The Currier House Women's Group will gather signatures for the petition and hand out its fact sheet today, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Houses. Members of the group also plan to circulate the petition among Harvard faculty members.

"It's not the most direct path to take, but it's all that's open to us and it's better than nothing," Wexler said.

Delda White, director of the Radcliffe Publications Office, whose recent article in The Radcliffe Quarterly criticized the Harvard plan, said about the petition, "You never know what will have an impact. It's a mistake to assume any course of action is futile.