The policy of some Eastern colleges of giving “geographical preference” to the admission of students from the Mid-West and South while restricting the number of students they accept from New York and Massachusetts on the grounds that they want a wider geographical base, is sometimes a cover for discrimination against Jewish students, the current issue of New Republic magazine charges.
An article by Vincent 5. Carruthers, one-time teacher at several Eastern colleges and former member of an admissions board of an Ivy League College, says that in the Ivy League schools the policy seems to be to restrict the admission of Jewish students. Some admissions officers in these colleges, Mr. Carruthers writes, seek to restrict the Jewish students to 15 percent of their classes.
Geographical preference, he declares, plays a major part in limiting the number of Jews because the vast majority of Jews live in the urban East, especially in metropolitan New York. He also reports that some admissions officials underline evidence of temple affiliation in applicants’ forms and in some cases “make an inconspicuous mark on the folder of any candidate they merely suspect of being a Jew.”
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.
