Vinay Harpalani: A long legacy of activism at Penn

Last week, in an inspiring display of solidarity, over 50,000 people, including 500 Penn students, arose before dawn to go to Washington and voice their support for affirmative action. While the U.S. Supreme Court heard the University of Michigan cases, we stood firmly outside its doors, forming the most significant civil rights demonstration since the 1963 March on Washington.

Support for affirmative action has been strong on our campus, as evidenced by numerous endorsements, including a recent statement on "diversity" from President Judith Rodin and University Board of Trustees Chairman James Riepe. Informed members of the Penn community clearly understand the importance of race-conscious admissions policies.

However, diversity was not the original motivation behind affirmative action. Affirmative action programs in higher education began as radical desegregation measures; they were demanded by people of color who were fighting for equality. Such programs were a direct outgrowth of the Civil Rights Movement, initiated through massive protest and student action. In fact, an examination of Penn's own history shows how these radical roots set the stage for the "diversity" we enjoy today.

In his recent book, Black Students in the Ivory Tower, Penn alum Wayne Glasker documents the history and impact of black student activism at Penn from 1967 to 1990. His analysis shows the clear relationship between affirmative action and student activism -- both nationally and locally. In fall 1968, during a year of tumultuous unrest around America, Penn enrolled 62 new black students out of 125 accepted. This was an increase of over 50 percent from fall 1967, paralleling a nationwide trend. Numerous student demonstrations around the country, along with the civil strife that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., catalyzed affirmative action as a means to integration and equality.

Even more striking at Penn was the following year. In February 1969, more than 800 Penn students and West Philadelphia community activists staged a six-day takeover of College Hall. They demanded that the doors of opportunity be opened to all, and their effect was enormous. For fall 1969, Penn accepted 251 new black students -- double the previous year's total -- and enrolled 150, an increase of nearly 150 percent. That year, Penn's matriculation of new black students towered over the other Ivy schools; the next closest was Yale with 100.

For the next several years, the University enrolled between 150 and 170 new black students per year, totaling 8 to 9 percent of each incoming class. The numbers have not increased since that time, in spite of the fact that Penn's class size has; the Class of 2002 included 144 black students -- only 5.9 percent of the total. The University now lags behind much of the Ivy League in this realm.

Many of the black Penn students of the late 1960s and early 1970s were local community residents. In response to outrage over its forced acquisition of community land, the University admitted students from Overbrook, University City and West Philadelphia high schools. Many administrators thought these students would fail and disgrace the University, but their legacy lives strong.

No other group of Penn students has impacted the University like this first, post-Civil Rights Movement wave of black students. They are the ones who created Du Bois College House and the Center for Africana Studies, both of which are celebrating their 30th anniversaries, and they changed the University forever. They initiated the sit-in of 1978, which lead to the creation of the United Minorities Council and the Greenfield Intercultural Center. And these students also paved the way for all of the campus resources that exist for people of color today, including Makuu, La Casa Latina and the Pan-Asian American Community House. Students created all of these centers through vocal protest, inspired by these past generations of activists.

Like affirmative action, all of these changes came on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement. Moreover, all of these actions by students of color built on other progressive causes, such as the anti-war movement and graduate student unions of the late 1960s. And on Tuesday, April 1, a whole generation later, a very similar coalition from Penn expressed its continued support for racial equity in America.

Today, a typical Penn first-year class usually does not include any students from Overbrook, University City or West Philadelphia high schools. While maintaining a verbal commitment to "diversity," the University soon abandoned recruitment in its surrounding neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, while the current Penn administration embraces "diversity," it has forgotten how Penn became diverse in the first place.

But those 500 of us who were at the march on April 1 saw firsthand the link between affirmative action and student activism. And it is incumbent upon us to remember our forebearers in this struggle and demand that the University open its doors to all.

Vinay Harpalani is a Ph.D. candidate in Education and a Master's candidate in Bioethics from Newark, Del.

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