Ervin changes are definitely not ‘win-win’
Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to the Student Life article on Friday and the decision of the University to remove the race-based criterion from the Ervin Scholarship Program. I take great offense to the claim of the Center for Equal Opportunity’s (CEO) claim that this is a “win-win situation” for the University and its students. First of all, the recent actions affecting universities across the nation brought on by the CEO are very contradictory and hypocritical to the actual name “Center for Equal Opportunity.” They claim that they are trying to promote “equal opportunity” by ridding universities of minority-based scholarships, but they are accomplishing exactly the opposite. As it stands, without these much-needed scholarships in place, the playing field is, in fact, far from “equal.” AfricanAmericans, along with other minorities, are at a tremendous disadvantage in applying to schools like Washington University, where the cost per year is climbing past $40,000. The whole purpose of the Ervin program (along with the Rodriguez program) is to attract minorities who will, otherwise, look elsewhere to less expensive schools or schools that are willing to offer them more money. Even the students who do not receive the scholarship are offered another, almost equivalent scholarship.ÿWithout having the Ervin Scholarship as a scholarship for African Americans, interest towards this school from African Americans will most definitely plummet. Personally, without the Ervin Program, I probably would not have even applied to this University, and I will venture to say that this is the case for a majority of the African Americans here.ÿRoger Clegg, from the CEO, claims that “there isn’t any student who loses out because of this decision,” but this very much far from the truth. ALL current and prospective students are losing out, as the so-called diversity at this school will be greatly reduced (if you need proof of the lack of diversity, just take a walk across campus). I greatly urge ALL students to be upset about what these outside forces are doing to YOUR university along with other universities across the country. If we do not act now, the whitewashing of facilities of higher education will continue.
Vincent Olorunnisomo
Class of 2006
A ‘wake up call’
Dear Editor:
On Thursday, April 1, 2004, students who are part of the John B. Ervin Scholarship Program at Washington University in St. Louis were informed that the scholarship would be dropping its African American only criteria and begin accepting non-minority (read “white”) students. This is per investigations and lawsuits across the nation against scholarships, fellowships and recruitment programs aimed at students of color. Washington University in St. Louis was one of the last universities to conform to conservative backlash. For this, I commend the College of Arts & Sciences administration, Dean McLeod, and Chancellor Wrighton. However, despite all effort to the contrary, the Ervin Scholarship, the Rodriguez Scholarship, and all the other minority-only programs across campus have now ceased to exist.
Like anything, the Ervin Scholarship has its share of faults. However, to say that a race-based scholarship is discriminatory in a world that, all in all, caters to the needs of whites, is insulting and childish. To attempt to infiltrate a program aimed specifically at a race of peoples who historically have been marginalized, disenfranchised, cheated out of every civil right, is irresponsible and selfish. To say that the races are now “even” although Washington University continues to maintain an “8 percent” policy when it comes to black student enrollment (and the actual percentage of black students in the United States hovers around 12 percent), when it is pretty likely that a third of that 8 percent are on Ervin Scholarship, is close-minded and unsympathetic. And to spread that idea across the nation to all minority-oriented scholarships, fellowships and recruitment programs sends the educational advancement of students of color back at least 40 years. It rejects the primary means by which minority students can jump the hurdles of systematic racial oppression and embraces ignorant and privileged ideals.
Students of every color, this is your wake up call. The stakes are higher than ever before because students of color have achieved more than ever before. Please do not forget: we are part of the first generation to live entirely segregation free.
Jessica Johnson
Class of 2004
What will happen now?
Dear Editor:
It comes of great sadness to hear that the John B. Ervin Scholarship program for black students at Washington University will be altered from its present form. Even though I applied for the scholarship and did not win it, I regard it as an essential tool for maintaining the enrollment of black students at Washington University. Having the Ervin scholarship is testament to the fact that the University values the presence of black students on campus. With the Ervin scholarship, the University has had leverage over Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford and other prestigious American universities, because they do not offer full tuition scholarships for black applicants. Because of the Ervin, the University has attracted the very best and brightest black students from across the country. Without the presence of the Ervin, many of these students who learn, contribute to, and enrich this university would be forced out due to financial circumstances.
Murry Ford
Class of 2005
Scholarships fostered community
Dear Editor:
Far too often I’ve witnessed the inability or unwillingness of institutions to transcend statistical “diversity.” The transcendence of statistical “diversity” is imperative because the concept of “diversity” is an abstraction. The vulnerability and corruptibility of statistics notwithstanding, statistical data tell a story. Statistical data told a story on March 30, 1998 at UC-Berkeley when a press conference was convened by its chancellor to announce the effects felt by the university as a result of California’s 1994 Proposition 209. According to the late June Jordan, then professor of African American Studies, in her essay “Break the Law!,” the chancellor cited the following statistics for the 1998 freshman class of UC-Berkeley as compared to that of 1997:
1.) A decline of 64.3 percent of African-Americans, who will, at most, represent 2.4 percent of the ‘total pool of admitted students.’ The total pool is 7,868.
2.) A decline of 56.3 percent for Chicanos, who will, at most represent 5.5 percent of the total incoming freshman class;
3.) A decline from 23.1 percent to 10.4 percent for Native American, African-American, Chicano, and Latino students who will arrive, next September-assuming a 100 percent acceptance rate for all of those admitted.
These statistics tell the story, or rather the tragedy, of the death of “diversity” on the campus of UC-Berkeley in 1998 as a result of Proposition 209. Will students at Washington University and across the nation soon be writing funeral dirges?
Approximately one-third of the Black student population at Washington University receives the financial support of the John B. Ervin scholarship program, but the number of students receiving the moral support, mentorship, and academic guidance is incalculable. What initiatives or programs will be put in place to compensate for the recruitment, funding, and retention that will be compromised as a result of the loss of this scholarship program? I am not a Rodriguez Scholar either, but I am an eyewitness to the community the scholarship program fosters. What will become of the Latino community without Latinos? What will become of the Washington University community without Black and Latino scholars and scholarship recipients?
Deva Rashed-Boone
Class of 2004