Looming in the middle of Central Grounds, the Office of Admissions has long been one of the focal points of the University, but few think of this building as having an integral part in black history.
In the past 50 years, from the first black student admitted in 1950 to last year's heated debate over affirmative action, the office has surfaced and resurfaced in the national spotlight with respect to the relationship between race and the college admissions process.
Few people know of the office's history and the three prominent figures that have shaped the University's racial integration policy. These three white men - Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn, University President John T. Casteen III, and Senior Vice President Ernie Ern - have each served as dean of admissions. Their terms have stretched from the days when only a handful of minority students speckled the Grounds to the present day, when the University boasts the largest graduation rate of black students of any public university.
"We didn't choose to integrate because it was a federal mandate but because it was the right thing to do," said Ern, who served as dean of admissions from 1967 to 1973.
|
The Admission Race •1902 - More than 60 black teachers particiate in a six-week summer institute at the University. Of the 1,000 teachers at the institute, only the black participants did not attend class on Grounds. •1935 - Alice Jackson, a Richmond woman, requests admission to graduate study. The Board of Visitors directs Dean John C. Metcalf to "refuse respectfully the pending application of a colored student," since "the admission of white and colored persons in the same schools is contrary to the long established and fixed policy of the Commonwealth." •1950 - Gregory Swanson wins admission to graduate study in law through a court decree requiring the University to admit qualified black applicants when black colleges do not provide comparable educational offerings. •1953 - Walter N. Ridley becomes both the first black to receive a degree from the University and the first black to receive a doctoral degree from any southern white institution. •1953 - Edward B. Nash and Edward T. Wood, both from Richmond, become the first blacks to enter the Medical School. •1960 - Wesley Harris becomes the first black student to live on the Lawn. •1969 - James Roebuck is elected the first black president of Student Council. •1970s - Black fraternities and sororities establish chapters at the University. •1975 - Black Student Alliance forms and formally proposes that the University establish an office of minority affairs. One year later the Office of Afro-American Affairs opens on Dawson's Row, with William M. Harris as its first dean of Afro-American affairs. •1997 - The proportion of black students attending the University reaches 9 percent. •1998 - Julian Bond, who joined the University's faculty in 1993, becomes chairman of the national board of directors of the NAACP. •1999 - Advocates for Diversity in Education celebrate diversity and show their support for the use of race in the admissions process with a rally and encampment on the lower Lawn. Compiled by Daniel Stern |
With the support of the University, Ern traveled around the South during his term, going to black communities to seek out potential students. He visited community centers, churches and homes. He met with high school counselors to prove the University's earnest interest in having black students study here.
"There was a notable effort by the faculty to increase diversity," Ern said.
Three black students traveled with Ern on these recruiting trips, one of whom went on to get his law degree at the University and become the first black justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, John Charles Thomas.
But Ern felt that getting into the University would be the easy part for minority students. After working as a professor from 1962-65, Ern had seen the struggle they faced in the classroom.
"It was terribly difficult when you're the only one of two underrepresented minorities in an introductory chemistry class with 300 people," Ern said.
Nonetheless, the students got involved the best they could.
"Right away, they put themselves in leadership roles, and they were doing all that they could to be the best U.Va. students," Ern said.
The integration and recruitment programs Ern developed disbanded in the 1970s as nearly a hundred black students began to enroll each year.
But while Ern said he thinks the academic environment got better, the social environment did not follow.
"Students chose to work together, but not socialize together," he said. "If [integration] is going to work, all components must work together."
Casteen can confirm Ern's observation of slow social integration. A student himself during the '60s, Casteen witnessed the earliest integration first hand.
"When I was an undergraduate student," Casteen recalled, "the state had not completely abandoned its policy of massive resistance to desegregation."
Casteen said during his time as a student at the University, he slowly saw the idea of integration become a reality.
"When I was a graduate student ... we came to understand that the University could and would change," he said.
When Casteen was appointed dean of admissions in 1975, he revived Ern's program of traveling to recruit superior minority students to come to the University. He traveled to churches, homes and YMCAs to find them.
"There was concern in some black communities that we might not stay our course," Casteen said. But it was his intention to make sure all students felt welcome.
"There was a good bit of optimism about what the students would accomplish and much determination that the University, and higher education generally, would come to belong to all of Virginia, not just to an elite class," Casteen said.
Today, the University has a black population of approximately 12 percent. Although Casteen said these figures make him proud, he said he recognizes the need for a sustained effort.
"It was the right thing to do, and that success is always fragile," he added. "One must always work to sustain momentum."
Blackburn tries to maintain that momentum today. Hired by Casteen in 1979 as assistant dean of admissions, Blackburn said he saw the push to desegregate the public colleges and universities in Virginia emerge during his term.
"In those days, we operated under the Virginia plan, which was a response from the Civil Rights Office in Virginia, which was under a mandate to desegregate the schools," Blackburn said.
It was under the Virginia plan that the University first began the business of a race-influenced admissions policy. Blackburn worked on this policy during his time as associate dean from 1979 to 1984 and has since carried it on.
"What's happened here is that we've broadened our approach in the admissions process," Blackburn said.
This approach came in the form of outreach programs and in scholarships to black students called incentive grants.
Blackburn began working on these outreach programs while working under Casteen. He recalled one such trip he made with Casteen that sticks out in his mind. The destination was a Virginia Beach high school, and the school's principal had a standout student for them to meet.
"He was just an amazing computer science guy," Blackburn said of the student. "This is in the early '80s you'll remember, and he knew all the programming languages." The student eventually attended the University and enrolled in the Engineering School.
In terms of the admission process, Blackburn said the entire office has worked toward integration.
"It wasn't just the two minority members [of the admissions office] on staff who were involved," he said. "It was very much a team effort."
Although Blackburn believes the University now maintains the reputation of having a strong black community, he thinks the outreach programs on which he worked with Casteen were an important foothold.
"We worked on a lot of outreach programs, and I think we did a good job of getting out into the community," Blackburn said.
After only 50 years of having blacks at the University, the process still is developing and is far from resolved. Just last year, controversial debates over affirmative action exploded after Board of Visitors member Terence P. Ross said that the Office of Admissions may be lowering its standards in some cases when admitting black students.
Last year also saw a 25 percent drop in the number of black applicants. However, the number of minorities admitted remains consistent with recent years, and the University continues to show its commitment to the recruitment of minority students.
(Cavalier Daily Associate Editor Christa Dierksheide contributed to this report.)
Read More
Virginia Policy Lab — a hub for student-led policy action
By Katherine Haden | December 9, 2024Students propose their own projects and collaborate with other members to research their issues of interest, brainstorm solutions and write policy proposals.
Perfecting the subtle art of the ‘sexile’
By Val Vixen | December 7, 2024Approach this sacred college ritual with a newfound confidence.
Top 10 ways to ring in the holiday season in Charlottesville
By Sam Saks | December 5, 2024With temperatures down, lights up and spirits high, not even pesky final projects and exams can dampen this holiday season.
