Private scholarships for minorities challenged

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

"I'm just dumbfounded," said Merle Thompson, the assistant division chair for English who knew Leslie V. Forte, for whom the scholarship is named, but was unaware that the scholarship was being challenged. "But I guess I'm not surprised because it seems like that's the way things are moving today."

Patricia Knight Gary, a mathematics instructor and former chair of the college's affirmative action-minority recruitment team, said the challenge "makes me very angry. There has been so much attention in this arena. It appears to be a major hysteria, or fear, of more minority students gaining access to colleges and universities."

Nicole Lucas is one of five students who received the $500 award this year. The interior design student, who recently received a college award for her leadership on the Loudoun campus of the community college, said that receiving the Forte scholarship "was a great opportunity." The award tells students that "if they strive hard, it's possible to succeed," she said.

Another recipient, Carmen Allen, described herself as a "disabled veteran single mother of two" for whom the Forte scholarship was meant a great deal. "This is a way to defray the cost that are not covered by other scholarships." Although her tuition and fees and required books are paid for by her veterans benefits, she said, babysitting costs for her children while she attends school and works two part-time jobs is not.

"It's extremely important," she said of the scholarship.

According to Michael A. Olivas, a University of Houston law professor and authority on college affirmative action, a case in Washington, D.C., dealt with the very same issue twenty-five years ago. But, he said, it was trumped by the 1978 Bakke decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racial quotas but said that race still could be used as a factor in college admissions.

"This issue of private scholarship money administered by public colleges hasn't arisen in any other circuit," said Olivas, the author of a book titled The Law and Higher Education. "My guess is it will be found to be against the law in that particular circuit."

Others have refused to speculate about what will happen. Officials with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the conservative Center for Individual Rights, and the Washington Legal Foundation all declined comment.

Even if NOVA loses, it is uncertain how much in scholarship money could be in jeopardy. According to The College Board, federal and state governments awarded $46.8 billion in student aid in 1994-95. And although the New York-based organization does not track private minority scholarship money, it did note that private scholarships amounted to $9.06 billion during that period. Of that, College Board officials say, from $4 billion to $5 billion comes in the form of private scholarship money that is not directly administered by higher education institutions.

The sources of all those dollars range from big-money donors like actor Bill Cosby, large corporations and organizations like the NAACP and The College Fund/UNCF to community churches and alumni. Eberhardt believes a decision against the college could have a detrimental affect on donations and claims that one concerned major donor already has questioned college officials closely.