Comments on: Princeton Review places University on 2010 Financial Aid Honor Roll

By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:18:53 +0000

One more postscript: When I was a grad student at UPenn, we had a program for minority grad students called the Fontaine Fellowship. This was a very well implemented program, whose applicants were carefully screened. For example, their essays were read with care, and personal impressions of the candidates were taken seriously. As far as I was concerned, this was a very successful program. I never met a Fontaine Fellow I did not like, and I never met one I could not trust. When I was in grad government, we always tried to get the Fontaine Fellows on our committees, because everybody knew you could rely on them. I was very surprised when I heard one express insecurity about her worthiness and the unfair advantage she had over white students. I missed my chance to tell her, “nobody here resents your good fortune, because you earn it.”

Affirmative action programs that simply give all minority candidates extra points are resented, for good reason. It is important to take some time with the candidates. This applies to class-based affirmative action as well.

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By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:53:41 +0000

PS to my post above: the Grass Roots Talent Search Scholarship, which made it possible for me to consider applying to The University of Chicago, was a well conceived and implemented class-based affirmative action program, specializing in low income students from rural areas, especially Montana (probably because of a donation specifically for Montana students). My anonymous donor received my grade card, and if I am correct about his identity, I got to meet him. Whenever I would tell people I was from Montana, the response was always “we like Montana students, they always do well here, we like the work ethic.” I tried to live up to this reputation.

A good alternative to mandated faculty and administrator pay cuts would be scholarships of this sort, directed at low income groups in specific regions of personal interest to the donor. How about North St Louis?

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By: Jerome Bauer

Jerome Bauer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:34:45 +0000

I could not have attended The University of Chicago without a full tuition scholarship for rural working class students, thanks to the generosity of my anonymous benefactor, almost certainly fellow Montanan Norman MacLean, author of “A River Runs Through It.” I am glad WashU is working to improve its economic diversity, for which it currently receives low marks. Financial aid is crucial. So is need blind admission.

I once said to a WashU class, “Anything that’s given may be taken away.” A student, on full scholarship, responded “YES!!!” The context was a discussion of intellectual freedom and political correctness, and the ethics of ideological grading (inevitable, no matter how hard we try to be “fair and balanced”)

Can low income students, even the ones on full scholarship, really afford to be as outspoken as the sons and daughters of privilege? I think the answer is “yes.” I still do.

Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
WashU neighbor, homeowner, and taxpayer

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