More than half of Illinois colleges and universities have difficulty in finding jobs for their students because of race, religion or national origin, it is revealed in a statewide survey made public today by the Illinois Committee on Discriminations in Higher Education, and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
Questionnaires sent to college placement offices throughout Illinois sought the answers to these questions: How often do employers, in the market for a college student to hire, specify that he must be white, Protestant, or perhaps a third-generation American# And what do the college placement offices do about such requests#
The results–based on answers from 47 Illinois colleges and universities–were that 58 percent of the colleges have difficulty in finding jobs for members of minority groups. Racial prejudice, the study indicated, causes the greatest difficulty in finding jobs for students. Religious bias was second, and discrimination on the basis of national origin was third. Approximately 70 percent of the college placement offices reported they received job orders with discriminatory “strings” attached.
In addition to specific discriminatory requests, the study showed a marked tendency for employers’ application forms to ask information about race, creed or national origin, or to request a photograph of the applicant. Discriminatory requests for prospective employees come most frequently from the field of business, rather than from teaching, research, or other fields, the survey showed.
Less than half of the college placement offices refused to handle job orders with discriminatory specifications, the study indicated. And a significant number of the college placement offices themselves asked questions, on their application forms, about the student’s race, religion or national origin.
The Illinois survey was conducted as part of a seven-state survey, now being completed by the “Midwest Committee on Discriminations in Higher Education.” The questionnaire for the survey was developed by members of the educators’ committee, in collaboration with college placement officers and the Anti-Defamation League.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
