As Opportunity Development Officer, James C. Allison worked to ensure that MIT comply with "equal opportunities," as required on federal contract paperwork. His appointment in 1968 was, according to Technology Review, "part of a special effort being made by the Institute to improve MIT's performance as an opportunity employer, similar to Avco, Raytheon, and other big area employers who have made a point of aiding employment for 'minority groups." One of Allison's first tasks was to assure fair employment practices on MIT's new chemistry building.

Some of the students around here will one day make decisions affecting the whole world...MIT is a sort of United Nations. But what kind of experience do the students have if what we preach isn't visible: if they see a building going up, and hardly any black people on the scaffolding? We must put our own house in order.

James C. Allison, "The Care and Feeding of an Employment Problem," Technology Review, December 1968, p. 108