Page 6
The Behrend Beacon
Southern Methodist University halts race-based bake sale
by Linda K. NVertheimer
The Dallas Morning News
The sign said white males had to pay $1 for a
cookie. White women: 75 cents. Hispanics: 50 cents.
Blacks: a quarter.
The event Tuesday at Southern Methodist Uni
versity was no PTA hake sale.
It was a conservative student group's attempt at
making a political statement, and it caused such a
stir that SMU shut it down after 45 minutes.
The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter ran
its so-called affirmative action bake sale to protest
the use of race or gender as a factor in college ad
missions. Conservative groups have held 'similar
sages at colleges around the country since February.
Group leaders say they were only making a point
while exercising their freedom of speech, but a black
student who filed a discrimination complaint with
SMU said the hake sale was offensive. SMU offi
cials said they halted the event because it created a
potentially unsafe situation for students.
Many public school graduates are not college-ready, report says
by Carolyn Bower and Alexa Aguilar
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Less than half of the nation's public high school graduates have taken
the classes they need to enter the least selective four-year college,
according to a study being released today.
The picture is worse for black students. Fewer than one in five leaves
public high school with the minimum courses required for a four-year
college. the study said.
The situation illustrates the gap between minimum graduation re
quirements in Missouri and Illinois and what students need to know
for maximum career options
The study, called Public High School Graduation and College Readi
ness Rates in the United States, released last week by the Manhattan
Institute for Policy Research. The group is a New York City-based
think tank whose research has been used to support school choice and
vouchers.
Preparation for college has become a critical issue because 70 per
cent of jobs in the 21st century will require some postsecondary edu
cation, said Quentin Wilson, Missouri's commissioner of higher edu
cation. Wilson said minorities, low-income students and students who
are first in their families to attend college are all underrepresented in
higher education.
About 42 percent of public high school students who graduated in
1999 went on to a four-year college, according to a Department of
Education report. Twenty-four percent went to two-year institutions
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"This was not an issue about free speech," said
Tim Moore, director of the Hughes-Trigg Student
Center. "It was really an issue where we had a hos
tile environment being created that was potentially
volatile."
During the bake sale, students were crowding
around the table outside the student center, and sev
eral began to get into a shouting match, Moore said.
David C. Rushing, a second-year SMU law student
and leader of the conservatives' group, said the event
didn't get out of hand and that at the most, a dozen
students gathered around the table of sugar and
chocolate chip cookies and Rice Krispie treats.
"We copied what's been done at multiple cam
puses around the country to illustrate our opinion
of affirmative action and how we think it's unfair,"
said Rushing, chairman of Young Conservatives of
Texas at SMU and for the state.
Chapters of the group held similar bake sales at
the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M
University this month. Both schools allowed the
events, citing free speech policies.
Pizza & 'Stix Student Combo
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Friday, September 26, 2003
and 8 percent attended a technical school.
Students and their parents need to know by sixth or seventh grade
the importance of taking strong core courses, Wilson said.
Sandra Schroeder, superintendent of the Madison schools, said a
guidance counselor and principal should watch whether students take
courses suited to their ability. While a principal of a central Illinois
school, Schroeder said she witnessed many seniors taking ceramics
instead of advanced math or science. "For students in their senior
year, there can be a 'time to play' mentality," she said. "You have to
change that mind-set."
Researchers for the Manhattan Institute define a college-ready stu
dent as one who has graduated from high school, taken certain high
school courses that colleges require and demonstrates basic literacy
skills. Researchers used the least-demanding requirements to enter a
four-year college: four years of English, three years of math, two years
of natural science, two years of social science and two years of a
foreign language.
Compare that with minimum graduation requirements in Illinois
three years of language arts, two years of math, two years of social
science and one year of science, among other courses.
Missouri's minimum requirements include only one more unit of
science
The discrepancy is why Schroeder says she's taking another look at
whether Madison High School offers adequate courses for a college
bound student. In smaller schools, organizing schedules that allow
students to take advanced classes can be tricky, Schroeder said. Schools
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Rushing, 23, said the events strive to give stu
dents a sense of the inequality he says is created by
unequal college admissions policies for whites and
minority groups.
Matt Houston, a sophomore, said the group's sign,
which listed prices for the treats by the race and sex
of buyers, was not a learning tool. It was offensive,
he said.
"My reaction was disgust because of the igno
rance of some SMU students," Houston said, who
is black. "They were arguing that affirmative action
was solely based on race. It's not based en race. It's
based on bringing a diverse community to a certain
organization."
He and Kambira Jones, a 20-year-old junior, both
expressed their concerns to SMU officials. " When
I saw this, I was like, 'I can't believe they let you
guys post this, — she said. " I felt they were attempt
ing to make Hispanics and blacks feel inferior. We
jumped over the same hoops to get there."
SMU's freshman class this year is one of its most
diverse ever 20 percent are minorities. Overall,
GRADUATE
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of Pennsylvania
OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA 16444
• Phone:Bl4-732-2856 or (Toll Free) 1-888-845-2890
E-mail: gradstudies@edinboro.edu
Apply online: www.edinboro.edu
The deadline for graduate assistantship applications is October 15.
Dr. Frank G. Pogue, President
may need to alternate the years they offer certain classes, so that stu
dents can fit in a college preparatory slate of classes over four years.
"You can do it, but it's more challenging," Schroeder said.
Meanwhile, community colleges can serve to fill in the gaps for stu
dents who find themselves in the predicament of completing their se
nior year, deciding they want to go to college and then finding they
didn't take the right kinds of classes.
Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow for the Manhattan Institute, said one
thing became clear from the report: "Anyone interested in improving
minority representation in higher education has to look at improving
K- 1 2 education.
"Counseling students what courses to take could be a good idea,"
Greene said. "It might be a good idea to increase graduation require
ments as a way to guide students. At the very least, high schools have
to make available courses needed to go on to a four-year college."
Fixing the problem will require closing the achievement gap between
white and black students, providing adequate counseling and making
students aware of what is needed to be prepared to enter college, said
Howard Denson, publisher of the St. Louis Black Pages. He has worked
to promote academic achievement and to close the achievement gap.
"It's a really good thing that we are taking a good hard look at el
ementary and secondary education today and realizing that, in this day
and age, we can do a lot better job for all American children," Denson
said.
More information about the study is available online at
www.manhattan-institute.org
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One of the 14 universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education
minority enrollment among the school's 10,000-
member student body is 19 percent.
Before the bake sale brouhaha, SMU already was
planning a forum so students and others could de
bate the aftermath of the recent U.S. Supreme Court
ruling on affirmative action. The court ruled in June
that universities could use race as a factor in admis
sions under limited conditions. The ruling changes
the landscape in Texas, where universities have been
banned from using race as a factor since 1996.
"We value free speech, and I think our record here
shows freedom of expression is important to the
academic community and especially this one," said
James Caswell, SMU's vice president of student
affairs.
The students organizing the SMU event said they
meant no offense.
To get permission for setting up, students said only
that they were holding a bake sale.
For the record, the SMU sale was a flop, at least
financially. The group ended up selling just three
cookies, raising $1.50.
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