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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1966)
Students Receive Gamble Scholarships By T. JAY MATTIIKWS Collegiate Prow Nervier CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — About 100 undergraduates at Harvard University are the winners in a nationwide talent search, but none of them knows it. Itepresenting one of the larg est collective risks ever taken by a college admissions office, they are the recipients of the so-call ed "gamble fund" scholarships— grants that since H»57 have brought at least 200 high schools’ seniors with rock bottom college board scores and difficult back grounds to Harvard. The students have come from urban slums, unaccredited South ern high schools, and migrant ramps Their parents, in most cases, never finished high school and may even have openly dis couraged them from going to col lege. Only a few members of the Harvard admissions department know who is receiving grants from the fund The students are told that they have normal schol arships from Harvard "Obvious ly you don’t write a boy and soy 'Congratulations, you’re a ter rihle risk,' " explains Peter Briggs, the director of freshman schol arships. Becoming Standard In 1966, this type of program, reaching out to the deprived stu dent, is becoming almost stand ard in many of the larger univer sities Kight years ago. when the program was started at Harvard, Athletics... (Continui-d from payf 4) but who probably wouldn't have gotten an education otherwise ” In addition, it was noted by Childs, the athletic department runs a tutor system for fresh inen athletes. "It used to be we lost a whole block of freshmen.” stated Childs, "now its down to 3 or 5 percent." The fact that the coaches re ceive twice a term reports on each boy’s academic progress also is helpful. "If we notice that boy’s doing poorly, we bring him in and try to help him out." says Childs. "Overall,” maintains Childs, "the boy's desire to compete, and the coaches’ emphasis on the im portance of education contribute highly to the number of athletes that graduate.” ONLY DAYS FOX KVCftOKfcKH M 0DONALD **!• *-■ • »•« <M) 5:00-7:35 - 10:10 JAMES BOND DOES IT EVERYWHERE! THUNDERBALL” PAJUVtUOS I UilllO UT1IT! Oar Owners Save $$$ Get Your Student Discount Card at CRYSTAL MOBIL SERVICE Gas & Tires for Less Broadway at Hilyard | there was almost no systematic attempt to reach this type of stu | dent. It was then that Harvard ap proached the head of an eastern foundation, who was personally Interested in helping disadvan taged students. He agreed to con tribute $50,000 personally for a limited time. He believed that other sources of funds could be easily secured once it was proven that the students he wanted to tiring to Harvard could survive there. He was right. "There are now at least twice as many members of the freshman class who are eligible for the program as arc on the actual list of gamble fund recipients,” Hriggs said. In fart, the original donor has grad ually been reducing his payments and by 1970 will have stopped ' them completely. Selection Not Easy The admissions committee has found that selecting boys with a ! potential for greatness in spite of their backgrounds is not easy. . However, the committee has come i up with some real "winners.” One student out of the first group of 20 (which graduated in class of IBfll) had grown up in California’s Imperial V a 1 ley, where his father made $4,500 a year icing railroad cars and his Mexican mother spoke little Eng lish. Neither parent wanted their son to go to college. The stu dent’s Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal score was 415; his math was 452. The college guide books cau tion that scores this low often in dicate inability to cope with col lege work. Yet (the boy was first in his high school graduating class, student body president, and a debater. The same was true in the case of a Negro boy from an unaccre dited, segregated Mississippi high school. He was student body pres ident and near the top of his Upward Bound • • • n onrtnuca from page l) it’s boring now," Ken answered when asked how he liked Uni versity social life. “If they'd make them (the Up ward Bound students) feel that they can do the work, they’d do ; better," said Truman Massey, talking of the attitudes of some j of the program's administrators. Truman, a young Negro who was raised in Chicago, but gradu ated from high school in Port land in 1904. feels that he and his fellow students may even be getting too much help with their studies. Should Help Kids’ On the other hand, he feels Court Convicts 3 of Cheating Three students were found guilty of academic cheating by Student Court Tuesday. Although each hearing involved a physical science exam, the three were not connected All three violations occurred fall term The first defendant, a fresh man. was found guilty by admis sion. and was put on disciplinary probation for the remainder of the year The second defendant, also a freshman, pleaded innocent, but was found guilty. The sanction is five terms of disciplinary pro bation This student was on dis ciplinary probation at the time the violation occurred The third case was tried in ab sentia, as the accused is present ly attending classes at another state school. The defendant, a sophomore, pleaded guilty, and was suspended from the Univer sity until winter term of the '66 '67 school year. Business Group Elects Alpha Kappa Psi, professional business fraternity, elected offi cers on Monday for the coming year. The new officers are: President, Steve Winfree; vice president, A1 (label; secretary, Herb Plep; treasurer, John Free man; and master of rituals, Gar rett Goo. The outgoing officers were Bill Allen, Terry O'Rourke, John Shafer, Hallock Woodworth, and Steve Winfree respectively The new officers will be officially in stalled Monday. An^EWRDI Bonus extra A free scholarship given away Tonite Phi Delta Theta — 7:30 p.m. JUST BE THERE; NO OBLIGATION OR ARM TWISTING the Upward Bound staff should "help the kids and make sure they don’t fall down.” "I believe that plenty of them will be able to pull up their grades this term,” he continued. Truman has a sister attending Memphis State College and a brother who graduated from Port land State College last year, but he worked for a year in a bowl ing alley after he finished high school. “You have to pick a time when you’re ready to go to school,” he said, when asked if he had plan ned to go to college before hear ing about Upward Bound. He wants to major in journal ism, but doesn’t know yet whether or not he will stay in college until he gets a degree. “I want to, and I think, in time, I will. It’ll depend on this term and next term,’’ Truman ex plained The next article will con clude this series and will dis cuss the views of some of the faculty members, administrat ors and counselors involved in the Upward Bound program. Tutorials Listed For Tonight An expanded program of ASUO tutorials will be held from 7-10 p.m. today, covering six subjects., All tutors are students who have received grade A or B in the subject. Students may receive free tu toring in the following subjects: French—215 Allen Biology—221 Allen Psychology—231 Allen Italian—266 Commonwealth Economics (Principles) — 214 Friendly Physical Science Survey — 105 Science PL-3 Program WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 19 b :Mi Hl'XTLEY HR I NKl.EY REPORT 7 oo El GENE (’AMPI'S REPORT 7:05 PSYCHOLOGY FILM: "Our In visible Committees" 8:00 ECONOMICS 202 8:30 F E l> E R A L MEDIATION: The Work of tlu- Federal Mediation Service is discussed by FMS Commissioners George Walker, LeRoy Smith ami Bob McLel land. Prof. Paul Kleinsorgc moderates. I class, even while working night I ly as the janitor in an office build i ing. Yet, his SAT scores scraped the 400 mark, and his father, a $4,000-a-year laborer, cared lit tle whether his son went to col lege or not. Finding Not Easy Finding students like these wasn’t easy. The admissions de partment figured that it would get applications from a few eli gible students in the course of a year but that the bulk of those really eligible for the program might not even apply to a col lege, let alone Harvard. Alumni were informed of the program and asked to contact as many high schools as possible. Other groups, certain national or-; ganizations and clubs, helped in the search for promising young men from deprived backgrounds and marginal high school educa tions. One big problem was the com plete lack of help from the par ents, Fred L. Olimp, dean of ad missions and financial aids, said. "We’d put an application in a boy’s hand, but when he got home his father would rip it up and tell him he’d had a night mare,” Glimp said. Another problem the commit tee had to face was the big jump from some place like the Imperial Valley to Cambridge and Har vard. To counter this, 10 per cent of the fund was used in put ting the students through a New England prep school for a year before they began college. One student liked the small town at mosphere so much after his year at prep school that he turned down Harvard and arranged a scholarship for himself to Am herst. Despite all of the handicaps, the students are found and most of them go to Harvard. Though their grade average has lagged behind the overall class average, it has been far ahead of what it was predicted to be. The gam ble fund has produced leaders in almost every campus activity; one of the students is a Rhodes schol ar. Twenty years ago. Harvard un officially brought a “risk” from a small farm in the Midwest to Cambridge. Today, he is a well known Ivy League professor. If the admissions people have their way, college faculties in the next two decades will be filled with the same kind of risks. Euce n£: :« Cifi»9IC OH riM*. k Hi: tff#n* ic:m > i DRIVE.IH W THEATRE Open 7 p.m. Heaters and Rain Guards Available 2 First Run Features All Color Program! "SPY in your EYE" Dana Andrews Brett Halsey Pier Angeli - CO-FEATURE - "SECRET AGENT FIREBALL" McKenzie Theater JAYNE MANSFIELD IN Promises—Promises - CO-HIT - MAMIE VAN DOREN Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt 630 Main—Springfield 7.-00 p.m. What is EWRDI? The letters E-W-R-D-l are the easier (and cheaper) way of saying Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute. And that is saying a lot. When you spend some $8,000 and 4 years to get an education, you can not afford to plug along at 350 words a minute. YOU can increase this reading efficiency 500%. Fall term, 100 Oregon Ducks did—find out how—tonight at 7:30 Phi Delta Theta, 1472 Kincaid (across from library). Double Discount Days Double Discount on ALL PAPERBACKS WED., THURS., FRI., JAN. 19, 20, 21 CAMPUS BOOKSTORE 877 E. 13th Above Bill Baker’s 343-4082
