Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:55:39.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Admission and Assimilation of Minority Students at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Marcia G. Synnott
Marcia G. Synnott*
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Access to higher education was and is an essential factor in the economic and social mobility of minority groups within the United States. Prominent among the groups to take advantage of educational opportunities were Catholics and Jews, the children and grandchildren of the Irish immigration of the mid-19th century and of the “New Immigration” from eastern and southern Europe at the century's end. Today, however, other groups — blacks, Hispanic-Americans, Indians, and Orientals — are knocking on the door of admissions offices at colleges, universities, and professional schools. It is still too soon to assess their rate of educational mobility and determine whether it will parallel or even exceed that of Jews and Catholics. The role of quotas, both discriminatory and benign, have played a crucial role in retarding and encouraging the educational mobility of both the earlier and contemporary aspirants to advanced degrees. In studying this area of educational and social history, the focus has been limited, at least for the time being, to elite private institutions, to the so-called Big Three of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Although admission and assimilation at these colleges would be more difficult than at most public institutions, once attained, success would be noteworthy and could help to open doors elsewhere.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , Fall 1979 , pp. 285 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 by History of Education Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

∗ For further documentation and elucidation of this topic, consult my overall study, The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900–1970 (Westport, Connecticut, 1979).

1 The core of this article is based upon my dissertation: “A Social History of Admissions Policies At Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900–1930” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1974). See Pierson, George W., The Education of American Leaders, Comparative Contributions of U.S. Colleges and Universities, Praeger Special Studies in U.S. Economic and Social Development (New York, 1969), pp. xix–xxi, 240–51.Google Scholar

2 Higham, John, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism 1860–1925, Corrected and with a new Preface (New York, 1968), ch. 10, “The Tribal Twenties,” pp. 264–99; and Digby Baltzell, E., The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy & Caste in America (New York, 1966), ch. 9 “The Anglo-Saxon Decade: Success without Leadership,” pp. 197–225.Google Scholar

3 Starr, Paul with Henry, James & Bonner, Raymond, The Discarded Army: Veterans After Vietnam, The Nader Report on Vietnam Veterans and the Veterans Administration (New York, 1973), ch. 9 “Education and the G.I. Bill,” pp. 226–61. Starr disputes the extent to which the Bill, G.I. actually raised the economic and social class level of veterans who took advantage of it (n. 24, pp. 291–92, and n. 41, p. 293).Google Scholar

4 Higham, , Strangers in the Land, p. 264; Hawes, Gene R., “The Colleges of Americas Upper Class,” Saturday Review Magazine (Nov. 16, 1963): 68–71; and Parker, Garland G., “50 Years of Collegiate Enrollments: 1919–20 to 1969–70,” Pt. 1. School & Society, 98 (March, 1970): 150.Google Scholar

5 Solomon, Barbara Miller, Ancestors and Immigrants: A Changing New England Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), pp. 204–07.Google Scholar

6 Steinberg, Stephen, The Academic Melting Pot: Catholics and Jews in American Higher Education, A Report Prepared for The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (New York, 1974), pp. 1–3, 30–31, 33–37.Google Scholar Angell, James R. to Hoffman, Conrad Jr., Dec. 7, 1933, Records of the President, JRA, Box 84, J.-JOH, file Problem, Jewish, Etc., Yale University Archives (hereinafter cited as YUA).Google Scholar

7 “Professional Tendencies Among Jewish Students in Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools” (Memoir of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research), The American Jewish Year Book 5681, 22 (Sept. 13, 1920, to Oct. 2, 1921), pp. 381–93; Minutes of Meeting of Association New England Deans Held In Princeton, 9th and 10th of May [1918], pp. 21–22, Records of the Dean, Frederick S. Jones, Box 6, file War, YUA; and Topics Proposed For Discussion, Association of Administrative Officers in New England, Middletown, Conn., May 21–22, 1920, Dean of Harvard College — Correspondence, #22 Deans' Association, 1920–27, Harvard University Archives (hereinafter cited as HUA).Google Scholar

8 Keppel, Frederick Paul, Columbia, American College and University Series (New York, 1914), pp. 179–81; Spring, Joel H., “Psychologists and the War: The meaning of Intelligence in the Alpha and Beta Tests,” History of Education Quarterly, 12 no. 1 (Spring 1972): 3–15; Hawkes, H.E. to Corwin, Robert N., Oct. 16 and 20, 1922, and Corwin, to Hawkes, , Oct. 18, 1922; YUA. See especially, Wechsler, Harold S., The Qualified Student: A History of Selective College Admission in America (New York, 1977), ch. 7 “Repelling the Invasion: Columbia and the Jewish Student,” pp. 131–85.Google Scholar

9 Memorandum on Limitation of Numbers; and Howes, George Edwin, Dean of Williams College, to Corwin, Robert N., Oct. 16 and Dec. 26, 1922, Com. on Limitation of Numbers, 1922; “Professional Tendencies Among Jewish Students in Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools,” pp. 387–89.Google Scholar

10 Lawrence Lowell, A. to Hocking, William E., May 19, 1922, Papers of A. Lawrence Lowell (hereinafter cited as ALLP), #1056 Jews, HUA.Google Scholar

11 Statistics on the Percentage of Jews in various Departments of the University, 1921–22, ALLP, −1056 Jews, ; Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1911–12 (hereinafter cited as Harvard President's Report, with date), “Appleton Chapel and Phillips Brooks House,” p. 172; Merritt, A.K. to Corwin, Robert N., April 11, 1922, copy, Records of the President, JRA, Box 84, file Problem, Jewish, Etc. For religious affiliations of Yale College students from the 1870s to the early 1900s, see Appendices D (1) and (2) “Church Members In Academic Classes 1873–1904” and “Religious Composition of Yale University Jan. 1, 1901” (Two Centuries of Christian Activity at Yale , edited by Reynolds, James B., Fisher, Samuel H., Wright, Henry B., Committee of Publication (New York, 1901)); also “Yale College 1912 Statistical Blanks,” filled out by seniors for History of the Class of 1912, Yale College, vol. 1, YUA. For Princeton, see the following in the Princeton University Archives (hereinafter cited as PUA): College of New Jersey, President's Entrance-Book, 1 (1871–1893), and Matriculation Book, 2 (1893–1903); “Reports of the Dean of the Faculty to the Committee on Morals and Discipline of the Board of Trustees,” Minutes of the Trustees, 9 (Dec. 1898–Mar. 1901), and 10 (June 1901–Jan. 1908); Radcliffe Heermance, Office of the Supervisor [in 1925, Dean] of Freshmen, “Preliminary Analysis of Freshmen Class,” in September, 1921–29, Trustees' Papers; Annual Report of the President of Princeton University for the year ending December 31st, 1909–1923 (hereafter cited as Princeton President's Report, with date); and The Nassau Herald, Class of Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Three (Princeton, 1923).Google Scholar

12 Robert N. Corwin, Chairman, Board of Admissions, to James R. Angell, Jan. 3, 1933, enclosing table, dated Oct. 19, 1932, “showing our Jewish population for the last ten years,” Records of the President, JRA, Box 2 and file Board of Admissions; Preliminary Analysis of Freshman Class,” in September, 1921–29, Trustees' Papers, and The Freshman Herald, 1930–49. See also Dean's Office to Lowell, President, Oct. 25 and Nov. 9, 1925, six tables dated either Nov. 23 or 24, 1925, and Lowell, to James, Henry, Nov. 3 and 6, 1925, ALLP, #184 Jews—Limitation of Numbers; and [Dean Clarence W. Mendell], report “Harvard,” stamped “Dec. 8–1926 Rec'd,” Records of the President, JRA, box Mar Mendell, Clarence W., file Clarence Mendell, W., YUA.Google Scholar

13 Harvard President's Reports, 1900–40; Pierson, George Wilson, Yale: College and University 1871–1937, vol. 2: Yale: The University College 1921–1937 (New Haven, 1955), pp. 669–71; and Princeton President's Reports, 1900–40 .Google Scholar

14 Amory, Cleveland, The Proper Bostonians (New York, 1947), ch. 13 “Harvard and Its Clubs,” pp. 291–310; and McLachlan, James, American Boarding Schools: A Historical Study (New York, 1970), in general; and Havemeyer, Loomis, “Go To Your Room”: A Story of Undergraduate Societies and Fraternities at Yale (New Haven, 1960).Google Scholar

15 “Memorandum on the Problems Arising from the Increase in the Enrollment of Students of Jewish Birth in the University,” May 12, 1922, Records of the President, JRA, Box 84, J.-JOH, file Jewish Problem Etc.; Jones, Frederick S. to Corwin, R.N., May 6, 1922, Records of the Dean, FSJ, Box 5, file Jews.Google Scholar

16 “Memorandum on the Problems Arising … Increase … Enrollment of Students of Jewish Birth…. ” May 12, 1922, see n. 15; Hurlbut, B. S. to Warren, Joseph, Oct. 16, 1907, Eliot, Charles W. Papers (hereinafter cited as CWEP), Box 221, file Hurlbut, Byron Satterlee, HUA.Google Scholar

17 Hurlbut, to Warren, , Oct. 16, 1907, see n. 16.Google Scholar

18 Harvard College, Class Reports, First Report, 1900–40; Yale College History of the Class, vol. 1, 1900–40; Yale Banner and Pot-Pourri, 1900–40; The Nassau Herald, 1900–40; Z.B.T. 1898–1923, The First Twenty-Five Years [New York, 1923]; Eliot, Charles W. to Keenan, Bruce L., August 9, 1907, CWE Letter Book #96, Dec. 11, 1906 to Oct. 26, 1907, p. 128, HUA. See also Rudolph, Frederick, The American College and University, A History (New York, 1962), ch. 18 “The Rise of Football,” pp. 373–93, and pp. 287–90; and Veysey, Laurence R., The Emergence of the American University (Chicago, 1970), “The Mind of the Undergraduate,” pp. 268–94.Google Scholar

19 Wilson, Woodrow, “The Country and the Colleges” [c. Feb. 24, 1910], The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, edited by Link, Arthur S. et al., 20: 1910 (Princeton, N.J., 1975), pp. 161, 165, 157–72; “Report on the Social Coordination of the University” [c. June 6, 1907], in the Trustees' Papers, PUA, and in Princeton Alumni Weekly (hereinafter cited as PAW), 7, no. 36 (June 12, 1907), 606–11.Google Scholar

20 [Henry, Bayard] to Thompson, Henry Burling, July 13, 1907, Papers of Woodrow Wilson , edited by Link, Arthur S. et al., 17: 1907–1908 (Princeton, N.J., 1974), pp. 305, 303–06; Bragdon, Henry Wilkinson, Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), pp. 408–09; Sigmund, Paul, “Princeton in Crisis and Change,” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 5, no. 2 (March 1973): 37, 34–41.Google Scholar

21 Lawrence Lowell, A. to Bruce, Roscoe Conkling, Dec. 14, 1922 and Jan. 6, 1923; Bruce, to Lowell, , Jan. 4, 1923; and clippings from the Boston Transcript, Jan. 11, 1923, and New York World, Jan. 12, 1923; Benchley, Robert C. “To the President and Fellows of Harvard College,” Sept. 25, 1922, the Memorial, and “Alumni Signing the Inclosed Memorial”; copies of the Corporation Records and the “Book of Understanding,” March 26, 1923, ALLP, #42 Negroes. See also “Harvard Men Here Fight Ban Against Negro,” New York Sun, June 16, 1922, clipping on the Memorial circulated among Harvard alumni in New York, protesting the exclusion of blacks from the Freshman Halls, ALLP, #981 Freshman Dormitories; and Nell Painter, “Jim Crow at Harvard: 1923,” The New England Quarterly, 44, no. 4 (December, 1971): 627–34.Google Scholar

22 Yeomans, Henry Aaron, Abbott Lawrence Lowell 1856–1943 (Cambridge, 1948), ch. 13 “Housing the Undergraduates, The ‘Houses,”’ pp. 180–98; Pierson, , Yale: The University College 1921–1937, ch. 10 “Mr. Harkness and the Quadrangle Plan — I,” pp. 207–30; ch. 19 “Planning the Residential Colleges,” pp. 420–21, 400–22; Jencks, Christopher S. and Riesman, David, ch. 22 “Patterns of Residential Education: A Case Study of Harvard,” in Sanford, Nevitt, editor, The American College (New York, 1962), pp. 737–39, 746, 752–59, 764–65.Google Scholar

23 Harvard University News Office, For Release, June 10, 1975, “Text of remarks delivered by John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University on Harvard Class Day, June 11, 1975,” 10 pp.Google Scholar

24 Brown, Francis J., Reeves, Floyd W., Anliot, Richard A., editors, Discriminations in Higher Education: A Report of the Midwest Educators Conference in Chicago, Illinois, November, 3–4, 1950, Sponsored by the Midwest Committee on Discriminations in Higher Education and the Committee on Discriminations in Higher Education of the American Council on Education, American Council on Education Studies, Series 1 — Reports of Committees and Conferences, vol. 15, no. 50 (Washington, D.C., August, 1951), pp. 11–22, 35–39. See also Freeman Butts, R., Cremin, Lawrence A., A History of Education in American Culture (New York, 1953), pp. 522–23.Google Scholar

25 McCarthy, Francis Bertrand, A Study of the admission of veteran students in Harvard College (1945–1947) and their college records, 1954, 131 pp. (mimeographed), HUA; Hawes, , “The Colleges of America's Upper Class,” Saturday Review Magazine (Nov. 16, 1963), 70–71; Digby Baltzell, E., “The Protestant Establishment Revisited,” The American Scholar, 45 (Autumn 1976): 505–06, 511–15.Google Scholar

26 Lipset, Seymour Martin and Riesman, David, Education and Politics at Harvard, Two Essays Prepared for The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (New York, 1975), pp. 179–80, 307–08; “A Survey of Princeton Freshmen,” PAW, 71, no. 17 (Feb. 23, 1971), 6–9; Wolf, Rabbi Arnold Jacob, “Jewish Experience Is Vividly Present at Yale,”' Yale Alumni Magazine, 36 (Jan. 1973): 14–15; and Singer, Mark, “God and Mentsch at Yale,” Moment, 1 (Av/Elul 5735, July/August 1975): 27–31.Google Scholar

27 Greeley, Andrew M., Ethnicity, Denomination, and Inequality, Sage Research Papers in the Social Sciences (Studies in Religion and Ethnicity Series, No. 90–029) (Beverly Hills and London, 1976), pp. 18–19, 44–46, 70–72.Google Scholar

28 Lipset, and Riesman, , Education and Politics at Harvard, pp. 180, 220; Kahn, E.J. Jr., Harvard: Through Change and Through Storm (New York, 1968), pp. 109–11; Feldman, Penny Hollander, “Recruiting an Elite: Admission to Harvard College” (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1975), “Table 5.5 Admissions Rates of Applicants in Preferred Categories,” p. 111; Coombs, Orde, “Making It At Yale, The Necessity of Excellence,” Change, 5, no. 5 (June 1973): chart, “Black Candidates for Admission to Yale,” 52, and 49, 51. See also McCleery, William, “The Admission Process at Hard-to-Get-into Colleges,” University: A Princeton Quarterly, (Summer 1970): 23–30; Chin, Denny, “Admissions grants recruiting funds to Chicano, Indian undergraduates,” Daily Princetonian, Oct. 25, 1972, 1, 6; “A Survey of Princeton Freshmen,” PAW, 71, no. 17 (Feb. 23, 1971), 6–9; Fields, Carl A., “One University's Response to Today's Negro Student,” University: A Princeton Quarterly (Spring 1968): 14, 17, 19; Tomberlin, George E. Jr., “Trends in Princeton Admissions” (senior thesis in sociology, Princeton University, 1971), pp. 119, 127–28, 136–52, 159–60; and Sigmund, , “Princeton in Crisis and Change,” Change, 5, no. 2 (March 1973): 35–36.Google Scholar

29 Brief of American Jewish Committee et al. as Amici Curiae, Brief of Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith et al. as Amici Curiae, and Brief of Columbia University et al. as Amici Curiae in Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States: Constitutional Law, 1977 Term Supplement: Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (2 vols.: 99 and 100), edited by Kurland, Philip B. and Casper, Gerhard (Washington, D.C., 1978), vol. 99, pp. 479–590, 689–738. For a list of Briefs in Bakke Case,” see Chronicle of Higher Education, 15, no. 3 (Sept. 19, 1977): 4.Google Scholar

30 “What the Court Said in Two 5-to-4 Rulings on the Bakke Case, Text of the Opinion by Justice Powell,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 16, no. 17 (July 3, 1978): 3–7. For texts of the opinions of Justices Brennan, William J. Jr. and Stevens, John Paul, see ibid., pp. 7–12; for those of Justices Marshall, Thurgood, Blackmun, Harry A., and White, Byron R., see ibid., 16, no. 18 (July 10, 1978), 11–13.Google Scholar

31 Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, 18 Cal. 3d 34, 553 P. 2d 1152, 132 Cal. Rptr. 680 (1976), especially, pp. 1152, 1156 (and n. 4), 1166, and 1172.Google Scholar

32 See n. 30, “Text of the Opinion of Justice Powell,” p. 6; and Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, p. 1171.Google Scholar