Two Views on Racial Diversity at Harvard

Recently Harvard announced that 10.7 percent of the students admitted to the Class of 2011 are African American. This is the largest percentage of black students accepted to Harvard in the school’s history.

There are 41 varsity sports at Harvard. In the current academic year, there were 32 coaches who were paid to coach these 41 varsity teams. (There is some overlap as some coaches have responsibility for more than one team.) Not one of these 32 coaches is black. Furthermore, there has not been a black head coach in any sport at Harvard for the past 15 years.

In addition, there are 14 senior administrators in the athletics department at Harvard. Not one is black.

The lack of black coaches at Harvard appears to have come to an end. Tommy Amaker, an African American recently dismissed as head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Michigan, is expected to get the job as head coach of the Harvard men’s basketball team.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.