Dear Editor,

I would like to expand a bit on the history that Davis Sargeant reported on “Civil Rights and Washington University: a complex history,” Stud. Life, 9/1/11.

In 1968, a confluence of events led the normally compliant WU faculty to set up a large number of committees to examine virtually all aspects of university governance. Among these was Committee #27. It was charged with presenting plans to increase substantially the number of students from minority and low-income families. I was privileged to serve on that committee.

The committee’s report opened by quoting S. A. Hendrick’s essay in College Board Review (Winter 1967-68): “It is my thesis that selective institutions—or to put it more plainly, most members of The College Board—are now operated almost exclusively for white students.” The report suggests that it would have been more informative to say white students from middle and high-income families. Committee 27’s report went on to reject the cumulative deficit thesis that low-income and minority students, in large measure, were so far behind by the end of high school that there was little chance that they would succeed at places like Washington University. The committee embraced an alternative idea that students of genuine talent could be identified by means other than verbal test scores and that, with adequate support, a large fraction would succeed at Washington University. The Committee set its sights high, proposing that 10-20 percent of baccalaureate degrees in the regular curriculum be awarded to students from minority and low-income families. Its report lays out in considerable detail a program for accomplishing this.

Unfortunately, neither my memory nor a brief scanning of my Committee 27 files allows me to report to you whether anything came of the effort. As an aside, it might amuse present students that WU was considered to be expensive; the total cost for a residential student was $3,600 per year; $27,700 when adjusted for the increase in the Cost of Living Index. Don’t you wish!

Daniel H. Kohl
Professor Emeritus, Biology
Campus Box 1137, Washington University
St, Louis, MO 63130-4899