213. Briefing Memorandum From the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Personnel (Barnes) to Secretary of State Vance 1
Affirmative Action Progress Report
I thought you would be interested in a brief report of progress on some of our Affirmative Action efforts.
Officer Intake
The Foreign Service Reserve Junior Officer Program met its goal of 43 candidates for FY 78. This figure more than doubled any previous intake since the inception of the program (1967). Although the Middle-Level hiring program did not achieve the Executive Level Task Force’s recommendation of 29, it did reach for the first time the goal of 20 participants, the stated goal per year for the preceding three years of the program.
Recruitment Advertising
As part of this year’s recruitment campaign, advertising has been placed in 112 publications aimed at minorities and women. This is, in part, in response to the complaints expressed to you by black publishers last Fall that the Department was not using their publications.2 103 [Page 889] newspapers and 9 magazines were chosen on the basis of circulation and response received from past campaigns. In previous years we have placed ads only in 7 minority and women’s periodicals, a few (2–5) general publications, and college newspapers.
Recruitment Drive
25 Foreign Service Officer “Career Advisors” will visit some 179 institutions of higher education between September 15 and October 13, concentrating on (1) those which provided the greatest number of women and minority candidates for the 1977 written examination; (2) those having a high density of minorities and women students; (3) those providing course specialization in fields of particular interest to the Foreign Service; and (4) those which provided the greatest number of successful candidates in past years.