Private scholarships for minorities challenged

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 1, 1997 by Scott W. Wright

Annandale, Va. -- The latest assault on the higher education establishment's affirmative action programs is over an obscure, $500 private scholarship for minority students at a community college in Northern Virginia.

The small amount of the scholarship belies what some national experts believe could become a billion-dollar rout with far-reaching consequences for minority students all across the country. Because they enroll many minority students, community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) stand to lose the most.

The case trails a string of well-publicized controversies from California and Texas reversing everything from minority admissions and student outreach programs to financial aid and faculty hiring. But this challenge is unprecedented not only because it originated at a community college but because it delves into the murky matter of private, not public funds.

"Everyone is very antsy about this," says Everett V. Eberhardt, the coordinator of affirmative action, minority and legal affairs at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), "because of the precedent it could set.

"The question is: If you can challenge this scholarship program, if it's illegal to administer these private funds, then the next step is to challenge funds like the United Negro College Fund and others who give money to Black colleges," he said.

Complainant Never Applied

The controversy got its start last May when Christopher Thompson, a political science student at NOVA, filed a complaint with the U.S. Education Department which contended that the community college's officials were breaking the law by barring white students from applying for the Leslie V. Forte Scholarship.

The award, named after the college's first Black English professor, gives $500 a semester to up to five minority students to encourage them to be active in campus life.

"The students who receive these scholarships are symbols for our college. We think they make great role models for other students," said Eberhardt. "It encourages students to be successful while they're here, to get involved. Statistics show students are more likely to be successful if they are connected to a college."

Thompson never applied for the Forte scholarship and college officials would not say whether or not he receives any of the approximately $12 million in financial aid which NOVA hands out each year. But, said Eberhardt, "I question whether a student who does not receive one $500 scholarship out of all this money is somehow being precluded from attending [Northern Virginia]".

Nevertheless, Thompson, in his complaint to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), cites a 1994 ruling by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- the same circuit court that has jurisdiction over Virginia -- that ended a University of Maryland scholarship program limited to Blacks. The one difference is that the program, the Benjamin Banneker Scholarship, used public money, whereas the Northern Virginia program is entirely supported through private funds. But Thompson claims the Forte scholarship still should be prohibited because it is administered by the state and because the college selects the scholarship recipients.

"There have been a lot of court cases over the past twenty years, and they all say the same thing but in different ways: The government cannot be involved -- even a little bit -- in something that favors one race over the other unless the reason is to specifically remedy past discrimination," said John Montgomery, the student's attorney. "But it has to be narrowly tailored and you can't just do it because you think one particular group is at a social disadvantage. And whether you agree with that or not, the Supreme Court has said over and over again that is the law."

Representatives of OCR plan to visit the college this month as part of an ongoing review of the matter. Spokesman Roger Murphy says that he doesn't know how long it will take the office to make a decision and that both sides have the right to appeal the outcome to the U.S. Secretary of Education. If federal officials rule against Northern Virginia and the college refuses to comply with the ruling, the federal government could curtail funding to the school.

Meanwhile, college administrators quietly have called in the Virginia Attorney General's office to help defend their stance.

And the two attorneys hired by the student who complained that the college is violating his constitutional rights say they're prepared to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I didn't even know there were any race-specific scholarships any more," said Montgomery. "I thought they were very much out of fashion."

"Dumbfounded, but ... Not Surprised"

Northern Virginia Community College, set here in the well-to-do suburbs west of Washington, D.C., would seem an unlikely setting for such a controversy. It is a typical suburban college, with more than 60,000 students spread over five campuses. It draws a strong mix of students from all backgrounds and has never had a major race problem. The college's diverse student body is 61.3 percent white, 13.5 percent African American, 12.8 percent Asian, 7.9 percent Hispanic, .9 percent Native American and 3.9 percent other.