Faculty and Departmental Response to Increased Black Student Enrollment.
The presence of black students in significant numbers in institutions of higher education is a recent phenomenon. As late as 1965, blacks accounted for no more than 5 percent of the total college enrollment in the United States, including blacks enrolled in the traditionally black colleges in the South. The overwhelming majority of white institutions were more likely to have only a handful of black students in 1965, often accounting for less than 1 or 2 percent of their enrollment [2,11]. Federal legislation, foundation support, and the activism of black students themselves accelerated black enrollment in white institutions. Many institutions with small numbers of blacks in 1968 doubled and tripled their percentages by 1972 [18]. In 1976, the U.S. Census set black enrollment at 1,062,000 or 10.7 percent of total enrollment [17]. Researchers were quick to respond to this new development. Their interest, appropriately, centered on black students themselves-their academic abilities and performance, their motivations and aspirations, their family background and persistence in college were intensely examined. The other perspective received far less attention, however. What was the impact of increased black enrollment on the institutions? How were faculty affected by these changes? Contemporary accounts and studies of the period of confrontation be-