BROOKLYN COLLEGE
DEFENDS ACTIONS

School Says It Is Already
[eeting Student Demands

By PETER KIHSS

Brooklyn College said yester-'
day it had already been mov-
ing to meet Negro and Puerto
Rican requests in all three
fields in which Negro and left-
wing students have been insist-
ing on action by next fall—
student enrollment, faculty
membership and courses.

The administration said it
had compiled a list of 1,300
unsuccessful applicants for City
University colleges from Brook-
lyn poverty areas that had been!
used to find new candidates for!
ciscretionary admission this’
all. .
The action is subject to Board:
of Higher Education approval
of such a discretionary policy.,

Sifting this list, the adminis-
tration said, produced the
names of 190 Negroes and
Puerto Ricans whose test scores
indicated they might be able
to do college work with spe-
cial help. Canvasses for others
are being made through high-
school teachers and counselors
and the Veterans Administra-
tion.

Students among the 42 dem-
onstrators arrested early Tues-
day for criminal trespass when
the police broke up a 16-hour
sit-in at the registrar’s office
were being notified that they
had until 4 P.M. Friday 9)
fle inc ‘Vv ‘Arel or “rans f°:
hearings if they wished to ap-
peal their expu's:ons from the,
school,

Hearing Set for Monday

Georee .A, Peck, dean of
administration and acting chief
executive officer, said a nine-
member Faculty-Student Com-
mittee on Orientation and
Counseling had set a special
meeting for Monday for any
hearings, and its action would
be reported tao the Faculty
Council.

Michael Novick, Student
Council president and member
of the Students for a Demo-
cratic Society, one of those
arrested, sa'd the students
would appeal. Thirty-five de-
fendants in Brooklyn Criminal
Court had described them-
selves as students,

Final exem‘nat‘ons at the
college start Wednesday and
run through June 11, but Dean
Peck said anyone winning re-
instatement would be allowed
to take make-up tests.

During a regular biweekly
news conference for student
publications, Dean Peck said he
had urged a serious effort to
recruit more Negro and Puerto
Rican faculty members and was
taking this up with the college
committee on hiring and bud-
get. Records indicated there
were 24 Negroes at present
among 767 full-time faculty
members.

The Faculty Council, Dean
Peck said, has directed depart-
ments to report by next Tues-
day on new courses on African,
Afro-American and Puerto
Rican history and culture that.
might be instituted in Septem:
ber.

A course on the Negro in:
American history to be taught:
by Donald F. Gerardi, <:
specialist in social history, has
already been approved by th
faculty. The English depart-
ment has developed plans for
a course on Negro writine in
America.

Active Role Seen

Julius C. C. Edelstein, co-
ordinator of urban stucies for
the City University, said Brook-
lyn College was the pionce:
among the city’s public senior
colleges in seeking Board of
Higher Education approval for
discretionary admiss‘on cf Ne-
gro and Puerto Rican students.
~ Both the demonstrators who
staged the 16-hour sit-in at the

~strar’s cffier and the col-
lege’s organized Negro s-uclent
group, which did not take part!
in the sit-in, want 1.000 rer:
Negro and Puerto Rican stu-
dents brought in next fall.

The administration has esti-
mated that only 200 more might
be accommodated by a pro-
gram that would include ad-
mission a month ahead of other
freshmen, limitation of course
load to 12 instead of 16 credits
a semester and the acceptance
of two or three extra students
in their classes by faculty mem-
bers who volunteer to take the
extra students.

A City University tabulation
of voluntary responses from
students at Brooklyn College,
last fall counted 119 Neorces.:
42 Puerto Ricans, 9.505 whites. :
244 others and 98 noxresrond-
en‘'s among 10.005 matrictlste?
students, OF a total of 30.5%°,
students, including pevt- te.
students, 1,002 were Nearocs
and 204 were Puerto: Ricans. |

Ehe New York Eimes

Published: May 23, 1968
Copyright © The New York Times