Some refreshing news from academia for a change. Scholarships are
offered to white students for essays on why they are proud of their
white heritage; and to students of any race for essays on overcoming
the affirmative action disease.
BroJack
_______
A&M group offers scholarships for `overcoming' affirmative action
By RON NISSIMOV
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Parodying affirmative action policies, a conservative student group at
Texas A&M University will offer scholarships next year to students who
pen winning essays about "overcoming" affirmative action.
The scholarships -- for $5,000, $3,500 and $1,500 -- will be awarded
next year in the "Overcoming Affirmative Action Essay Contest,"
sponsored by the Young Conservatives at Texas A&M and the conservative
Texas Review Society, a nonprofit organization that publishes the
Austin Review, Texas Education Review, the Houston Review and the
Examiner (at Texas A&M).
Earlier this week, the College Republicans at Roger Williams
University in Bristol, Conn., announced a $250 scholarship available
only to white students. That scholarship requires an essay on "why you
are proud of your white heritage" and a picture to "confirm
whiteness."
Matthew Maddox, an A&M senior from Tomball who is chairman of the
campus YCT organization, said the Texas scholarships are open to all
students.
"We certainly hope to get applicants who are not white," Maddox said.
"I know for a fact that not all minorities agree with affirmative
action policies."
Applicants must submit an essay of 1,500 words or less describing "how
you or a family member have overcome institutionalized discrimination
and/or the stigma imposed by policies giving preference to particular
racial or ethnic groups in college admissions, employment and other
competitive arenas."
The essays will be partially evaluated on "the applicant's narrative
of how he or she has worked to overcome the adversity created by such
preferences."
Cedrick Bates, a black junior from Houston, said the scholarship will
only perpetuate the image of the campus as being inhospitable to
minorities.
"A lot of minority students aren't going to want to come here when
they see something like this that opposes affirmative action," Bates
said.
Maddox said the scholarships are being funded by alumni who want to
remain anonymous and hope to "counter the increased racialization of
A&M's admissions policy."
In December, A&M President Robert Gates became the only president of a
major U.S. university to voluntarily decide not to use race
preferences in admissions or scholarships.
Maddox said the university is nevertheless implementing race-based
policies, including "graduate diversity fellowships" designed to
increase the number of minority graduate students. According to a
January memo, applicants will be evaluated partly on their
"experiences as a minority student or as a nonminority student from a
diverse environment."
Another memo from October 2003 specifies the percentages of minorities
that should be hired in various engineering departments, explaining
that "the numbers are not quotas, but rather goals corresponding to
our expectations."
"They have very specific percentages they've set as targets," Maddox
said. "They can rename it, but it's still a quota."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2411852
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