The Shape Of 1998

Black Issues in Higher Education, Dec 24, 1998 by Michele N-K Collison

"You've got to know the shape of the river perfectly. It is all there is left to steer by on a very dark night." So begins Derek Bok and Dr. William Bowen's new book, The Shape of the River, one of the first books to demonstrate the power of race-sensitive admissions practices. The former presidents of Harvard and Princeton universities evoke the image of Mississippi riverboat pilots winding through fogs, slow eddies, and hidden bluffs.

Perhaps that is what 1998 felt like to those who fought to provide access to Blacks in higher education only to watch in dismay as 30 years of progress was dismantled by successful legal -- and voter -- challenges to affirmative action. Those challenges began, of course, two years ago with California's Proposition 209, which slowed the number of Blacks and Latinos admitted to the elite University of California campuses to a trickle.

This year, the movement gathered momentum as the battleground shifted to Washington State. Although affirmative action supporters appeared more organized and were better financed than their peers in California had been, opponents again won a decisive victory when voters passed Initiative 200.

Brusied and battered, supporters of affirmative action were again surprised when the struggle that has long been waged on university and graduate school turf shifted to the virgin terrain of public school districts. Students and

parents in Boston and Virginia -- among other places -- filed lawsuits saying they were unfairly denied admission to well-respected schools. In Boston late last month, a three-judge panel struck down the affirmative action policy at Boston Latin School, the city's most prestigious high school.

By the end of the year it was clear to many that the landscape had changed and that new strategies are needed to continue to ensure minority students access to the nation's colleges and universities.

"Those of us who are proponents [of affirmative action] have to clarify the terms of the debate and try to make it clear that it is not a question of preferences or of righting wrongs that happened in the mid-1800s," says Margaret Montoya, a professor of law at the University of New Mexico's School of Law.

Many veteran leaders in the fight for access opted either for retirement or a career change this year. Dr. Donald Stewart announced he will step down from the helm of the College Board next year and Dr. Reginald Wilson left his prestigious senior scholar position at the American Council on Education.

Yet observers say some of the new players who are emerging may prove ideal for these pragmatic times -- people like Drs. Belle Wheelan, the first African American woman to head Northern Virginia Community College, and Lee Pelton, the first Black president of Willamette University in Oregon.

However, faculty appointments like that of Dr. Steven L. Mayo -- the first Black tenured professor at the California Institute of Technology whose scholarly career is so clearly distanced from matters of race -- beg the question of whether scholars who do align themselves with racial issues will become further marginalized from the academy's most coveted positions. Certainly, many argued that this year's Justice Department probe of Dr. Luther Williams was a not-so-subtle attempt to get rid of him. Williams has successfully used NSF programs to create more opportunities for African Americans. But Ward Connerly, the Black California businessman, who was once the beneficiary of affirmative action programs, has become the father of the movement to roll back those efforts.

As 1999 approaches, perhaps these new leaders will be like the Mississippi riverboat pilots Bok and Bowen wrote about so eloquently in their book. The pilots of the educational process who had to "know every depth, every deceptive shoal, and every hidden snag of the river" to continue the fight to ensure access to education for all.

The following is a recap of the higher education highlights of 1998:

Politics and Personalities

* President Clinton's national advisory board on race concluded its work in 1998 with little of the fanfare that accompanied the group's creation in 1997. The seven-member panel held meetings nationwide, but most experts believed the panel did not help build a stronger national consensus for affirmative action in higher education and other settings. The board could not be effective, many said, because President Clinton and the media were sidetracked by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and members had to defend themselves against charges that they ignored opposing voices. (April 30, 1998)

* Congress passed a massive bill to extend the life of the Higher Education Act. The act includes provisions to lower student loan interest rates and increase the maximum allowable Pell Grant. The hill also included major changes in funding for institutions that primarily serve students of color. (May 28, 1998)

* Middle- and high-school students may get a leg up on a college education thanks to a new program that will provide information and mentoring services to low-income students. Congress included $120 million for the GEAR-UP program, which was introduced by Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), who noted that although the federal government offers a wealth of college financial aid, many low-income students never know about it. (Nov. 26, 1998)