National Association of Scholars Cheer CUNY Changes, Decry Affirmative Action During Conference - City University of New York

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 1, 2001 by Ronald Roach

NEW YORK

Although members of the National Association of Scholars (NAS) consider the elimination of open admissions at the 11 senior colleges in the City University of New York system a victory in view of the group's conservative mission, speakers and panelists at the group's ninth annual conference in New York City largely explored challenges to the NAS agenda.

Meeting in Manhattan last month, the NAS, a 4,300-member organization known for its opposition to race-conscious affirmative action, played host to roughly 300 people at its conference.

"Things have not gotten better. They have gotten worse," declared Dr. Alan Charles Kors, a University of Pennsylvania history professor and a NAS founding member. Kors, the recipient of the NAS's Barry R. Gross award at this year's meeting, stirred conference attendees with a denunciation of politically correct campus administrators and faculty chiefs he believes suppress the free speech and academic freedom of dissenting faculty.

"We now have judicial systems [on campuses] that are kangaroo courts," Kors said.

Highlighting the theme of "Taking Measure: Higher Education at the Turn of The Century," the three-day NAS conference examined topics, such as the academic consequences of the consumer-driven university, civic culture, education school reform, academic reform at City University of New York and affirmative action.

NAS defines itself as an "academic organization dedicated to the restoration of intellectual substance, individual merit and academic freedom in the university."

Though acknowledging mounting challenges to the NAS agenda, NAS members and officials talked positively about achievements and proclaimed their determination to see their organization proceed in the coming years.

"I think we have an opportunity to be a real influence. There are people in higher education policymaking who listen to us," says Dr. Stephen Balch, president of the NAS. "We have a lot of high-level contacts. And I'm hopeful we'll have affiliations with people in the Bush administration."

NAS members were optimistic that the organization founded in 1987, has indirectly spurred the launch of other conservative higher education groups, such as the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics.

"I think one of the achievements of NAS is that spin-off organizations have emerged. There are more voices out here pushing for academic standards," says Dr. William Donoghue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and a NAS member.

The group also celebrated "academic reform" in the City University of New York system with officials citing elimination of remediation education in the CUNY senior colleges as a restoration of academic standards. Herman Badillo, chairman of the City University of New York (CUNY) system trustee board, thanked the NAS for its assistance in helping CUNY trustees push through measures ending CUNY's systemwide open admissions policy and eliminating remediation education in all but CUNY's community colleges.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AGENDA

Speaking to the issue of "individual merit," Ward Connerly, the controversial University of California regent, urged NAS members to help him fight efforts by California regents to repeal the ban on race-conscious affirmative action. Though a repeal of the ban would represent a symbolic rather than a real policy change since the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996 prohibits race-conscious affirmative action in California, Connerly says it's crucial to have the ban repeal rejected because its passage might boost the prospects of an anti-Proposition 209 referendum.

Though warning NAS members of the difficulty of the affirmative action fight, Connerly blamed Black Americans for having racial attitudes and perspectives that keep Blacks and Whites divided in the United States. Citing the Black perspective on the O.J. Simpson case and the recent presidential election with Blacks voting 90 percent for Al Gore, Connerly likened the position of Blacks to the member of a family, traveling by car, who consistently has a preference for Taco Bell or Burger King when the rest of the family wants to dine at McDonald's.

"The difference ... begins to weigh on that family," Connerly noted in his address. "It's dragging down the spirit of America."

He also asked conference attendees to support his efforts to establish and get a referendum passed in California to ban the collection and classification of people by their racial and ethnic backgrounds.

"The government has no business in classifying us as such ... I ask you to join me in this endeavor," Connerly said.

Following Connerly's talk for which he received a standing ovation, a panel of speakers began a discussion, entitled "In the Twilight of Racial Preferences: Diversity and Affirmative Action in Student Admissions."

Dr. Thomas E. Wood, executive director of the California Association of Scholars, presented research arguing the lack of correlation between educational excellence and campus diversity. Wood, one of the co-authors of Proposition 209, said he's been examining the link between educational excellence for students and student diversity on campus because affirmative action proponents argue the two are closely related.