Challenging the Notion of Minorities on Campus
February 4th, 2007Adversaries of educational Affirmative Action are undoubtedly happy. Today’s big news on the education front is the settlement reached between the University of Michigan and two of the case’s leading plaintiffs. The now historical case has dragged on for almost the last ten years. Over that time it grew into a “nearly 40,000-member class-action lawsuit.†(NY Times, “Michigan: Affirmative Action Suit Settledâ€).
Like many universities, the U. of Michigan had a strong preference for minorities in their admissions processes, both undergraduate and graduate. The goal of such programs has been to balance the scales of diversity. Michigan settled with the plaintiffs and has had to readjust its undergraduate admissions criteria in order to satisfy the new Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.
Who’s Next?
Clearly the issue raises hackles on nearly every front and the uproar will likely not die down anytime soon. Which raises the question, “Who’s next?â€
Ward Connerly, the loudest adversary of Affirmative Action, has led the charge. With a head of steam and cocky from the Michigan win, he is set to test the waters in a range of Northwestern states, including Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota, among others. Where he finds Affirmative Action dug in, he will surely challenge ‘til the death.
Connerly was instrumental in the California Proposition 209 vote, then Washington and now Michigan. An African American himself, Black liberal journalists have cast him as a mouthpiece for “rich, white benefactors†and caricatured him in political cartoons. Many of his critics also argue that Connerly is just too socially privileged to rally against Affirmative Action.
The Other “Minorityâ€
If not ethnic minorities then who else could possibly be a minority group on a college campus in the U.S.? Plenty of sources report that along gender lines women now outnumber men on campus.
Are men, then, a minority?
If you consider the Towson University scholarships that favor academically challenged males, then one may argue young males are a growing campus minority. The program seeks to challenge the persistent devotion to “research that shows that high-school grades, not SAT scores, best predict how students will fare in college.†Towson believes that males are becoming scarcer on campuses because they are ineligible for many programs due to low performance in general academics, in sharp contrast to their typically high SAT scores. In other words male students are smarter than their academic records indicate; they’ve simply been academically “lazy.â€
“Like many universities, Towson has a student population that is predominantly female, and it is looking for ways to balance that out.â€
Special Admissions
Towson’s program is called the Academic Special Admissions Program. Since the scholarship’s inception in the 2005-06 academic year the majority of students accepted have been male. However, TU makes it emphatically clear that the program is open to all students:
“Towson has been careful to avoid complaints of discrimination. Any student is eligible, regardless of gender or ethnic background. And students who are admitted do not take spots away from those who qualify for regular admission.â€
A New Admissions and Scholarship Business Model
TU is just as cognizant of the political climate as is every other American college and university. And right here is a good example of the new model. See, everyone is now eligible to apply for everything. However, smart phraseology will make it possible still for admissions and scholarship programs to be aimed in the direction of specific “minority†populations.
It’s just that the lines between “minorities†are now blurred.
(The Towson University article was originally published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, a subscription-based review. The link accesses a copy of the original republished by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.)
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