It first happened at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then Princeton University. Now administrators at dozens of other colleges and universities must decide whether to open their minority-only programs to all students in the face of complaints from civil rights organizations.
“The problem is they discriminate on the basis of race — that’s unfair and it’s also illegal,” said Roger Clegg, general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, the civil rights group that began investigating MIT in spring 2001. “This goes beyond what’s at issue at the University of Michigan (with affirmative action).
“Race is not just a factor (in these programs), race is a requirement and an absolute qualification.”
Northwestern has yet to receive any formal complaints about its two programs, but administrators are discussing if and how to modify the Summer Academic Workshop, which serves all incoming black and Latino students, and Excel, for minorities entering the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Robert Redwine, MIT’s dean of undergraduate education, said the school decided to open its summer programs, Project Interphase for incoming freshmen and MITE2S for high school juniors, after a complaint from a white student who couldn’t attend one of the programs.
Redwine said including white and Asian students would make it harder to achieve the goal of attracting black, Latino and Native American students — who are traditionally underrepresented in the sciences — to engineering.
NU’s Excel program has a similar goal, said Ellen Worsdall, McCormick’s assistant dean of student affairs, who oversees the program. Unlike MIT’s program, she doesn’t think Excel would reject a white or Asian student.
“I don’t think someone would be excluded directly based on their race,” she said.
Following MIT’s announcement in February, administrators at Princeton also decided to open their summer public affairs program to everyone in the interest of preventing complaints similar to the one at MIT, said Robert Durkee, vice president for public affairs at Princeton.
Durkee said that when the program was formed 17 years ago, its admissions criteria were legal. But the law has since evolved.
“For that kind of program, it would not be able to survive a legal challenge,” Durkee said. “We knew it would certainly be challenged.”
NU’s SAW program remains open only to black and Latino students, but administrators could decide on ways to modify it.
“We are definitely not canceling the programs,” said Stephen Fisher, associate provost for undergraduate education. “We are not breaking away from programs at this time but could move to a model of open invitations.”
SAW aims to provide incoming students with an “extra level of comfort” both academically and socially, Fisher said.
Students in SAW attend seminars in writing and computers and learn about advising, student services and other university resources. The program also gives them a chance to “put down roots” and develop relationships with other minorities, Fisher said.
But according to Clegg, such a program is not only illegal, but also offensive and counterproductive.
“I think for any student having a problem adjusting, it’s fine for the college to try to provide special help,” he said. “But I think that it’s condescending and wrong to assume every African-American and Latino student will need help to adjust. That kind of rationale is using very gross stereotypes.”
Fisher said SAW does not assume these groups need an academic boost.
“The intent isn’t to remedy deficiencies,” he said. “All students admitted to NU are capable of doing the work and graduating, but SAW gives students an extra level of comfort, particularly important for students from minority groups.”
Fisher said the need for comfort has been illustrated by the recent racial slurs scrawled across campus. However, several of these incidents have been directed toward Jewish students, who aren’t included in the SAW program.
Attendance at the two-week SAW is restricted to about 40 to 45 students, because NU subsidizes the program. If there are more incoming minority freshmen than slots in SAW, Fisher said organizers examine students’ academic backgrounds — such as whether a student attended a school system with a weak curriculum or came from a home where English was not the primary language — to identify who might benefit most from the program.
“When you describe the activities, they would be equally valid for any freshman,” Fisher said. “But putting down roots has a greater resonance for the minorities.”
Clegg said academics would be an acceptable criteria to identify students who would benefit from SAW, rather than using race. Factors such as being the first in a family to go to college or having an income below a certain level also would be valid criteria, he said.
Writing program lecturer Charles Yarnoff, who led the SAW writing component last summer, said the programs offered would be helpful for anyone, not just minority students.
“I think every student would benefit (from SAW),” Yarnoff said. “It eases the transition and alleviates the anxiety about going to college.”
