Affirmative action under attack

In an attack planned by right-wing enemies of affirmative action, the federal government has threatened to sue Southern Illinois University [SIU], a state university with campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville, unless, by Nov. 18, it scraps three programs that provide fellowships for national minorities and women.

This action also threatens a vast network of comparable programs across the country which benefit tens of thousands of young women and men of oppressed nationalities.

Two programs under attack—the Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship and the PROMPT program, provide study opportunities to graduate students from “underrepresented minorities.” The third, the Graduate Dean’s Fellowship, is also available to women. According to the Justice Department, 132 graduate students have benefited from these programs in the last five years.

Federal attorneys say these programs constitute employment discrimination because they are not open to white men, although they constitute only 1.5 percent of SIU’s total aid package for graduate students. Thousands of white men have received financial aid to attend SIU.

The significance of this attack goes far beyond SIU.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of scholarships, internships, and fellowships in the U.S. available to women and “underrepresented minorities” on identical terms, sponsored by colleges, universities, associations, corporations, foundations, and even federal agencies. If the SIU programs are found illegal “employment discrimination,” all these plans are threatened.

Under the government’s reasoning, other “illegal” programs would include, for example, the Bell Labs Graduate Research Fellowship Program, Minority Fellowship Programs at the National Institute for Mental Health, the Porter Fellowships of the American Physiological Society, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships at 72 colleges and universities, the Johnson and Johnson Leadership Award for Minority Students, NCAA Minority and Women’s Enhancement Programs, fellowships and grants from the American Association of University Women, Project 1000 Fellowships for Hispanic Students, Ford Foundation fellowships, fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the summer internship at the American College of Healthcare Executives, and the Center for Democracy and Technology Minority Fellowship—to name the first few hits in a very extensive Web search.

These programs are legacies of the civil rights movement and the rebellions of the 1960’s, which forced the ruling class to slightly open the doors to professional education for women and people of color. They have not brought equality or created a “color-blind” or “gender-neutral” society—not nearly. But tens of thousands have benefited from them. Now the Bush administration threatens to slam the door shut again and lock it.

This attack follows the legal strategy mapped out by a right-wing institute called, in Orwellian style, the “Center for Equal Opportunity” [CEO], whose purpose is to destroy any program that might equalize opportunity for people of color and women. Based in Virginia and bankrolled by the right-wing Olin, Bradley and Scaife foundations, it is staffed by Reagan-era government lawyers and headed by right-wing commentator Linda Chavez. The CEO has filed complaints against similar programs at many universities, and boasts that most have given in without a fight.

For example, a spokesperson for the American Council on Education told the Clarkson Integrator that a summer program at Northwestern University, and programs for minority engineering students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were modified and opened to white male students.

“If these programs were brought into existence to close the gap between Blacks and whites, we are nowhere near that, and it is totally insulting to say that white men are being discriminated against in the universities,” said Dr. Conrad Worrill, National Chairman of the National Black United Front and Coordinator of the Northeastern Illinois University’s Center for Inner-City Studies.

“This is a political move [by the Bush administration] to set precedents for challenging these fellowships,” said Dr. Lance Williams, also of the Center’s faculty. “They are sending out feelers—how will people respond, and who is coming to their defense? They’re telling conservative folks, ‘We’re supporting your concerns.’”

When attacking affirmative action programs, conservatives pose as the defenders of poor white students. But in fact, the Bush administration has slashed the amount of Pell grants and tightened eligibility standards, making it harder for working-class students of all nationalities to get aid for college.

“[Conservatives] claim that minority fellowships aren’t reaching the most needy students, but they aren’t talking about the cultural ramifications,” Williams said. “If you look at the retention rates, you see that Black people and people of color, often first-generation college students, have a difficult time without the cultural resources and connections. The low percentage of faculty of color means there are fewer mentors for them in the Academy. So the inequality is perpetuated from one generation to the next.”

It is not clear how SIU will react to the threat. On the one hand, Chancellor William Wendler has defended the programs and said they are not discriminatory. But he sounded less firm in other reports, telling the Herald & Review newspaper, for example, ’re going to work to address the concerns they have.” In any case, SIU is ultimately governed by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, a state agency. A mass movement to stiffen their resistance would be more than timely.