Affirmative action needs to be replaced
Last summer I wrote a column about affirmative action. In that
column, I told our state legislature that if they were going to
remove race from consideration in college admissions, it needed to
come up with a plan to continue to add diversity to our state
colleges.
Let’s get the facts out of the way. Yes my last name is Ortiz, a
Spanish-Mexican last name. I was born in New Mexico. My family
comes from Spain and from Native American tribes but not have I
once applied for a minority-based scholarship or grant nor did I
check the “Hispanic” box when I applied to colleges – including
CSU.
The Colorado General Assembly saw a new bill asking to remove
racial preferences in higher education admissions. One of the
supporters of the bill is Sen. Ed Jones, an African American. To
lift a quote from Collegian reporter Christiana Nelson’s story,
“Offending action,” Jones said, “Affirmative action is all about
race. I believe it is time to move forward and end this source of
racial tension.”
The reason I mentioned above that I have never gone for minority
scholarships is because I don’t personally agree with affirmative
action. It is not enough. It is outdated. It is unfair in any way
you slice the pie.
Everyone loves bake sales right? Brad Jones of the University of
Boulder’s College Republicans held a bake sale on campus. He
initially wanted to charge people different prices for items based
on the buyer’s race. A Caucasian would pay, let’s say, $1 for a
brownie while an African American would only pay 75 cents for the
same brownie. Jones did this to pun how he feels affirmative action
gives minorities the upper hand, unfairly, in college admissions
and scholarships. Jones was barred from actually changing prices by
the administration; citing the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, state
statue and university rules. He was allowed to post “suggested
donations,” but his point got across.
Agree with affirmative action or not, this bake sale straight up
shows how affirmative action works in some areas, including
admissions.
For a lot of students, without scholarships they wouldn’t be
attending college. Jason Mattera, the president of College
Republicans at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, offered a
whites-only scholarship to express their opposition against
race-based scholarships and affirmative action, according to a CNN
report. This scholarship received a lot of criticism – partly
because Mattera is a recipient of a Hispanic College Fund
scholarship (can we say hypocrite) – but mainly because it was
viewed as racist. But why? No one bats an eye when scholarships are
offered only for African Americans or Native Americans. Why? But in
our country, it is allowed because these segments of the population
have been suppressed in the past and also because minorities are
unrepresented in higher education and this is a way to increase
numbers. I blame White Guilt for the former but you can come up
with your own theory.
In a state that has more than a 20 percent minority population,
only 11.2 percent of CSU’s student body is minority. I don’t
believe our student body has to necessarily reflect the
demographics of state (not all our peers come from the state and
not all Colorado high school students go instate) but it should be
something CSU strives for. The goal should be to increase the
applicant pool of students applying to CSU. If not affirmative
action, then what? I support the proposed bill to remove race in
consideration but only if the legislature and CSU work out a
program to reach our diversity goals. They can’t remove affirmative
action without replacing it with a program that is fair and
promotes diversity.
Either that be by instating more college prep classes in high
schools or having CSU recruit minorities stronger but the same
people removing affirmative action are responsible for implicating
a program to further diversify our campus.
If affirmative action needs to be replaced, I support that – it
is outdated and is unfair but we can’t just cut affirmative action
and hope for the best. We need to consider alternative options to
diversity.
Chris is a senior majoring in history and journalism. He is the
opinion editor for The Collegian and although he is Spanish, he
doesn’t speak the language or like chili.
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