Judge OKs Settlement in White Student’s Discrimination Suit
TULSA, Okla. — A federal judge earlier this month approved a settlement in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a White student who contended that Oklahoma higher-education officials unfairly denied him a scholarship.
University of Tulsa student Matthew Pollard filed his lawsuit against the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education in 1998, saying his college entrance exam test scores were better than those of several minority students who received scholarship money from the state.
Pollard will receive $20,000 under the agreement approved by U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley. Another $230,000 will be divided among 15 other students who later joined the class-action lawsuit — more than $15,000 each.
The settlement amount is about half of what they would have received if they had been awarded five-year scholarships under the program. In addition, the state has agreed to pay nearly $100,000 in attorneys’ fees.
The program awarded scholarships to the top 0.5 percent of Oklahoma students from each racial and gender group based on test scores from college entrance exams.
In the wake of Pollard’s suit, state lawmakers revised the program and eliminated scholarships that gave a slim edge to gifted Hispanic, American Indian and Black students who sometimes scored lower than White students.
Center for Equal Opportunity Files Records Request with UVA
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The conservative group responsible for raising a nationwide furor against affirmative action has filed an open-records request to view records from University of Virginia trustee meetings at which school officials discussed the role of race in student admissions.
The Center for Equal Opportunity, which had criticized the university for favoring African-American applicants, last year essentially forced the school to change a scoring system that explicitly took race into account. However, university officials insist the change was procedural and that race is still informally considered (see Black Issues March 2).
The center, based in Washington, D.C., requested the records in December. But last month, Linda Chavez, the center’s president, wrote to university officials and complained about the records provided.
“It is interesting that, in all the documents provided, there is nothing, not a word, discussing how or to what extent race and ethnicity are used as admissions criteria,” Chavez wrote. “During a year when obviously this was a matter of serious discussion by [university] officials, it is quite remarkable that nothing was committed to paper that can be shared with the public.”‘
University spokeswoman Louise Dudley says the university has provided all of the information requested but is double-checking to make sure no records related to the request were missed.
Last year, the center issued a report based on the university’s 1996 admissions records that concluded Black applicants were 33 times more likely to gain admission than White applicants.
The center followed up with a second review of more recent admissions figures that concluded African Americans were 111 times more likely to gain admission last year than similarly qualified White applicants.
Virginia officials blamed the controversy over the university’s affirmative action policy for a 25 percent drop in the number of African American students seeking admission.
Alabama A&M President’s Wife on
Paid Leave During ROTC Investigation
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The wife of Alabama A&M University’s president will remain on paid leave from the school until completion of an inquiry into allegations of federal fraud, authorities say.
Dr. John T. Gibson’s wife, Voncile, was placed on leave in January after an audit by U.S. Army officials cited financial irregularities in an ROTC Enhanced Skills Training Program that she managed.
Rod Steakley, an attorney for the university’s board of trustees, says he has been reviewing records and conducting interviews to look into the allegations. He estimates the investigation will take approximately six more weeks.
Auditors say the Army paid A&M more than $1.5 million for the program over the last seven years but that A&M collected $641,512 above its costs and transferred the money to its general fund.
The audit recommends Army officials seek the return of nearly $447,000. Voncile Gibson maintains she did nothing wrong.
The auditors also accused her and a secretary of receiving nearly $91,000 for work done during nonbusiness hours between April 1992 and September 1997 that had nothing to do with the ROTC program.
Texas Professors Want
Standardized College Exit Exams
AUSTIN, Texas — A group of University of Texas professors wants the state to implement standardized tests for students who seek bachelor’s degrees from public colleges and universities.
Such tests are needed as a way to judge the quality of instruction — just as the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS test — measures public schools, says a group of about 15 professors.
Minorities recently mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to those tests as discriminatory against African American and Hispanic students.
The university professors informally pitched the idea — which some other professors want trashed — last month to Lt. Gov. Rick Perry’s staff. Spokesman Ray Sullivan says that Perry “is intrigued.”
Last fall, Perry appointed a special panel to study higher education reform. That commission will discuss ways to measure quality later this spring but Perry has not endorsed any specific proposal, Sullivan says.
“We’re just trying to get a measure of performance that’s objectively assessed,” says psychology professor Joe Horn, who supports the concept. “It’s good for accountability.”
Unlike TAAS, the tests would not be used to withhold degrees from students who fail. Rather, the required tests would be used to evaluate faculty and could weigh into decisions on tenure, promotion and raises.
Critics say the plan would create an unwieldy bureaucracy with a hidden agenda. “If you read between the lines, they’re worried about classes having ideological bents and students being graded on whether they share the ideological bent of the professor,” says computer science professor Alan Cline. “I think it’s scary.”
Disney Signs on as Black College
Reunion Sponsor
