I Their Any Race, or Discrimination When It Comes to Scholarship:?

Race, Scholarships, and Discrimination

The U.S. Department of Justice is threatening to sue Southern Illinois University to block three paid fellowships for minority and female graduate students, saying the university uses race and gender as factors in awarding graduate student fellowships. Commentator Clarence Page argues that when it comes to giving out scholarships, discrimination is nearly always a factor.

The debate over racial preferences in educational institutions has flared up again following a government investigation of Southern Illinois University. The Department of Justice says the university uses race and gender as factors in awarding graduate student fellowships. The Justice Department contends this is a violation of Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act. But commentator Clarence Page points out that when it comes to giving out scholarships, preferences are nearly always a factor.

CLARENCE PAGE:

The Justice Department is threatening to sue Southern Illinois University over three paid fellowships for minority and female graduate students. The government says the fraternities discriminate against, quote, "white, non-preferred minorities and males," unquote. That's a narrow way of looking at the fellowships, the university argues, and I think the university has a point.

In 2003, the Supreme Court said the University of Michigan and other colleges can consider race in college admissions decisions, but only among other factors, and that each applicant must be evaluated individually. That's fair. Besides, as far back as anyone can remember, there have been scholarships and fellowships limited to various groups, some of which are pretty, shall we say, surprising.

For example, on one collegiate Web site called FinAid or F-I-N-A-I-D.com, I found $1,000 scholarships for students who happen to be left-handed. There are scholarships for twins and scholarships for triplets. There's a $500 scholarship for students who happen to be obese, and there's a scholarship for little people who must be 4'10" or less and a scholarship for tall people. Female applicants must be at least 5'10" and males 6'2". There's even a scholarship for just average people.

Late-night star David Letterman at his alma mater, Ball State University, offers his scholarship for students with mediocre grades but high creativity. My kind of students. Then there's the appropriately named Zolp Scholarship at Loyola University in Chicago, which offers full tuition to Catholic students whose last name happens to be Zolp, Z-O-L-P. First-name Zolps need not apply. But anyone named Scarpinato, whether by birth or by marriage, can apply for the scholarship of the same name at Texas A&M. Other colleges, even Harvard, offer hope if your name is Baxendale, Hudson, Bayer, Downer or Bright--and you're bright enough. And it's hard to count all the schools that award preferential treatment to the children and grandchildren of alumni. Some of them even end up in the White House.

Despite the political fireworks they generate, scholarships or fellowships for women or minorities don't really affect very many students, especially compared to the damage done by government tightwads. The Senate, for example, approved a deficit reduction bill in November that would damage millions of students. The bill would scale back federal student loans by almost $10 billion to fund other budget programs. So while one branch of government claims to be watching out for white and male students, another branch is putting the screws to almost all college students, regardless of race or gender. It doesn't take a scholar to figure that out.