Impressions of a Black Psychiatrist in a College Dealing with Black and other Minority Students

The high attrition rate of black students on white campuses between admissions and graduation has been widely discussed. This attrition rate was related to their alienation from the college mainstream and their coping with frustration by either “cooperating” with the college, or self-destructive withdrawal from conflict and/or aggressive behavior. To remedy the maladaptive behaviors, Henry Johnson, Vice-president of Student Services at the University of Michigan1 suggested that white institutions encourage black students to think through their priorities, that black counselors be recruited, remedial and financial assistance be increased, and in-service training programs be instituted to familiarize faculty with the needs of disadvantaged black students.

From 1971 to 1975 I had the unique experience of being the psychiatric consultant to York, one of the newest of New York City's twenty-five colleges. The president of the college had asked me, through a white colleague of mine, to work with two departments concerned with the mental health of students. The first was the Division for Counseling and Student Development, which handled some of the counseling needs of the general, or mainstream, and predominantly white, middle-class student population. The second program was SEEK (Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge), which offered tutorial, financial, and counseling assistance to the poor, usually disadvantaged, and chiefly black students under thirty years of age. These students were not eligible for regular admissions to the city universities. Whereas the general student population dealt with was white with lesser numbers of blacks, Puerto Ricans, Orientals, and others, the SEEK population studied was predominantly black with lesser numbers of whites, Puerto Ricans, and others.

Although the idea of working with college students was an opportunity to explore a challengingly different set of psychosocial dynamics, I was nevertheless curious as to why a white colle