symposium

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 14, 2001 | by Shirley Strum Kenny, | Ward Connerly

Universities recognize that no one set of criteria can be used for developing a freshman class. For example, colleges traditionally balance their classes for many factors -- gender, geography, major areas of interest. The exceptional cellist may slip in despite below-average math scores; the young woman in engineering may get accepted despite her verbal scores. If the football team needs a running back or a Middle East prince wants to study in America, exceptional criteria may be applied.

Every college and university has "special admits"-- students who are given seats in the incoming class despite scores because of some special characteristic the institution values. They may be talented athletes or children of alumni or friends of a generous donor. Since winning basketball or football teams actually increase student applications, campuses can attempt justifications for preferential treatment of athletes. Since alumni and other donors make funding available to support students or raise faculty salaries or build new buildings, their requests are taken seriously. But what is amazing is that we do not hear protestations about these practices.

Only when race comes into the picture do Americans find themselves in a pitched battle about college acceptance. Either we pretend other exceptions do not occur, or we are not aware -- although it is hard to be unaware of some of these practices.

Are there then valid reasons to consider racial factors along with those undisputed factors of gender, geography, legacies and athletic prowess? There are indeed.

First, as President George W. Bush urges us to "leave no child behind," we also must leave no capable student behind. Our economy depends on education beyond the high-school level; to maintain world pre-eminence, we are dependent on a better educational level for all our people. If we do not open the doors to college education to all races and ethnicities, we condemn ourselves to failure. If we deprive ourselves of this major and growing source of educated personnel, we will not survive as the leading world economic power. Put simply, we need these people, and we need them well-educated at the college level. We also need the buying power of college-educated professionals, who will be important in sustaining our economic growth.

Second, we need a workforce capable of serving our global industries and our increasing diversity at home. If we look first at our own country, the new census gives a loud, clear message to businesses that their U.S. clients are more diverse than ever, and their business success is dependent on cultural understanding that once seemed unimportant to the corporate bottom line. Whatever the product, American customers soon will be predominantly nonwhite.

No longer is America a melting pot; it is a richly multicultural society, and the ringing of the cash register will reward those businesspeople who respond. Universities must help corporations in their need to diversify their workforces. They must both broaden the student body and give traditional (read: white) students a better understanding of other cultures. Not only business but all professions -- medicine, law, government and education -- will depend on knowledge of many cultures.