BALTIMORE (. ) - Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler wants to help colleges strike the tricky balance between creating new affirmative action programs that boost minority enrollment and graduation but also withstand lawsuits.
“Given what has happened with affirmative action across the country we need to make sure there has not been a chilling effect on colleges,” said Carl Snowden director of Gansler’s new civil rights division.
“Programs will certainly be challenged but we want to show we’ve already thought about the questions raised by lawsuits.”
Gansler sent a letter about the effort to the 11 colleges of the University System of Maryland as well as to Morgan State University. St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Baltimore City Community College.
In the letter he said he intended to review recent legal developments in higher education admissions financial aid recruitment and academic support for minority and poor students as well as for those learning English or becoming the first in their family to attend college. Colleges also will receive guidelines for creating programs that help minorities. Gansler said.
USM Chancellor William Kirwan welcomed the initiative which comes as the system pledges to cut the achievement gap between white and minority students in half by 2015.
“I think there is a lot of confusion in people’s minds about what the law does and does not permit with regard to reaching out to underrepresented groups,” Kirwan said.
Confusion persists he said four years after the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action battle reached the Supreme Court.
In the late 1990s two white women sued the school sparking a debate on a point system that assigned preference to minority applicants.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that universities can weigh race during admissions because it enriches the diversity of the classroom. But the high court cautioned that it would be unconstitutional to allow race to become the main factor in minority admissions.
More Maryland schools. Kirwan said could offer summer sessions for minorities and follow President Freeman Hrabowski’s lead at University of Maryland. Baltimore County. There talented black students earn Meyerhoff Scholarships which enable them to continue their education and possibly earn doctoral degrees.
“There’s a real wariness on the part of institutions outside Maryland to venture into this area at all,” said JoAnn Goedert. Gansler’s chief of educational affairs.
The Supreme Court she said has signaled that race-based assistance in admissions can be done but only “under the narrowest of circumstances.”
I voted yes but the disappointing reality is that the measure granted exceptions for privileged persons those with the fortune to be born with darker pigmentation than mine. If we are a nation of equals that strives for equity then why are we perpetuating racism by promoting government-sponsored racism?There is no such thing as reverse discrimination. Discrimination is discrimination plain and simple.
How can we put an end to affirmative action nonsense in Texas?! Affirmative action is nothing but legalized racism. Also organizations that only give scholarships to students of hispanic black or other so-called minority heritage should be outlawed. It is unabashed discrimination.
im asian and my opinion is if going to college everyone should take the exam without identifying what race they come from so if the top 50 results happen to be all white then they deserve to get in to that college i just need to try it harder the next time i guess
YES!!!! It is awesome that race is finally becoming a nonissue in Nebraska.. no more pulling out the "race-card". Equal opportunity does not mean we use reverse racism as Hart would have us do. That would be along the lines of reparation measures which also need to banned. Look racism in any form is intollerable. Affirmative action should be about each individual. I practice affirmative action by donating to men's shelters and by working with the physically and mentally handicapped. I receive it by getting federal aid for school. I "affirms" my right to have a chance. However it has NOTHING to do with race.. and it shouldn't. Affirming equal opportunity is great.. race based and gender based affirmative action is just wront and unethical. Go Nebraska!
Affirmative Action involving racial or gender preferences regularly violates the Constitutional and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protections against discrimination. It's as simple as that. Time to end it.
Determining college enrollment government hiring and government contracting on the basis of race is completely un-American. The only reason why Gansler is doing what he is doing is because he knows that a. The general public has no tolerance for AA programs and b what he is doing is neither fair to college students or settled legal procedure. The more the American public is aware of what is going on in this realm the more quickly Ward Connerly and his associates will stamp out this blatant form of racial spoils once and for all.
Entrance into college should be completely color blind and based solely on achievement. All names should be stripped out of applications and simply assigned a number. When the numbers shake out you'll still find diversity in colleges but a diversity of equally qualified people rather than the sham "equality" of affirmative action. Right now every black or hispanic on elite college campuses has to fight to prove that they deserve to be there because everyone else assumes they were given preference simply because of their skin color. No one is at a "disadvantage" anymore in America and the entitlements must end. Why don't Asians have any problems getting into college despite also being subjected to poverty and racism?
How typical of the affirmative action crowd. They know that discrimination is wrong (unless its discrimination for them) but they keep trying anyway. Their only concern is setting up their discrimination so as to avoid lawsuits.
I thought racism and discrimination were wrong? I guess all the people who drilled that in my head daily throughout my life were wrong because apparently it's fine to discriminate against white people.
Let's see. The "white owned" businesses want to be competitive. The owner's race is made an issue not by them but by women minorities and City Attorney. So the "white" companies are up against those who wish to deprive them of jobs and contracts based on their skin color and gender. Nothing reverse about that it's clear cut racism. Blaming white males for their success by inferring that it was all due to oppressing women and minorities is garbage. Racism is a one-way street I'm afraid as minorities yammer they can't be racist because racism is what whites do. This is just a smokescreen by women and "minorities" to get a chunk of the pie by claiming they've been overlooked and rejected simply because of their appearance and gender. Left wing lunacy at its best.
Forex Groups - Tips on Trading
Related article:
http://www.examiner.com/a-1061163~Gansler_tells_Md__colleges_about_affirmative_action_plan.html?cid=rss-Baltimore
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|
