Scenes from Wesleyan classrooms. Photo from the Hewlett Diversity Archive

Admission Strategies   Historical shorthand has accorded John C. Hoy '55 MALS '61 heroic status in the reformation of Wesleyan's admissions policies - a role he emphatically rejects. "I have received a lot of recognition for what was a singular issue, a decision essentially made before I joined the staff. Vic [President Victor Butterfield] gave me all the room in the world to get going on it, but I have been embarrassed over the years by being regarded as some sort of guru on this, and that's just not the case." Hoy first returned to Wesleyan (from teaching English and history at a school in St. Louis) as assistant director of admissions, working for Dean of Admissions Robert Norwine for one year, 1959-60. He was already aware of the way Williams College was setting an example with its openness to recruiting minorities. Robert L. Kirkpatrick '60, himself a former director and dean of admissions (1966-74) and later vice president for University Relations, observes that at this time some administrators and most of the Wesleyan faculty were putting considerable pressure (overtly and behind the scenes) on President Butterfield and on Norwine to recruit a much more diverse undergraduate population. "This was not so much a push for racial minorities, although they were a component, as it was an effort to expand the number of Jewish undergraduates and the number of kids from inner-city or working-class backgrounds," Kirkpatrick notes. As dean of admissions at Swarthmore College in 1962, Hoy restructured the admissions program and spearheaded a minority recruitment program. Wesleyan summoned him again, first as a consultant and adviser on recruitment matters, then, replacing Norwine in 1964, as dean of admissions and freshmen, as well as assistant to the president. Hoy found a campus ripe for the kind of changes he hoped to effect. "I was encouraged by many things," he says: "Vic's interest in going co-ed and in bringing in international students. The administration's thinking that went to the guts of urban school problems--they had already cited, in reports, their concerns about overt and subtle discrimination against Jewish students, poor students, black students." "Vic had a tremendous feel for admissions. He had been dean of admissions at Wesleyan in the thirties and had recruited those fabulous classes; he was concerned that Wesleyan move into and stay in the front ranks." Hoy put together a committee to review his strategies and serve as advisers "to sanction and affirm our commitment." Among this group were Beckham and professors Vincent Cochran (biology), Richard DeBold (psychology), Philip Hallie (philosophy), and Robert Rosenbaum (mathematics), and Kerr, then assistant to the provost. Recruiting was broad-scale and aggressive. In one typical "assault," Hoy took some of his staff to Brooklyn, where they met with the head of guidance for the City of New York public schools system, several principals, and selected alumni. The admission officers then fanned out and, in pairs and small groups, visited (many of them for the first time) New York urban schools, where they asked to meet or learn about the best minority students. In Chicago, Hoy's team called on alumni to help. Chuck Stone '48 (Hon. '95), then editor in chief of the Chicago Daily Defender, the largest black daily in the country, agreed to make calls to schools to ask them to line up their best African-American students. Daniel Woodhead '34 secured a meeting room at the posh University Club of Chicago, where the doorman and everyone else was astonished to see a flood of well-dressed young African Americans arrive in the afternoon. "Chuck came breezing in to talk to them," Hoy recalls, "never letting on that he had just been fired an hour or two earlier. The kids had a rollicking time, and we got a few strong applicants from that pool." "Chuck wasn't out of work long," Hoy added. "He went on very quickly to become chief of staff for New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell." Reaching out to school officials, clergymen, and numerous alumni, Hoy repeated this energetic tactic in as many cities as the budget would allow. His staff made a particular effort in the South, visiting- among others- the freedom schools in Alabama and Mississippi.