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Greensboro. N.C
'Satellite' lecturer speaks on affirmative action (tilings
Taleisha Bowen
You'll hear people say sometimes that affir
mative action is reverse discrimination,"
Tom Powell said. "And because it's reverse discrimi
nation, it's automatically wrong, because the consti
tution doesn't allow discrimination by race."
"But the constitution does allow discrimination by
race," Powell continued.
Powell, a former professor in Guilford's philoso
phy department, spoke at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 on
the recent Supreme Court rulings that affected col
lege admissions procedures in light of affirmative
action.
In June 2003, the court ruled on two cases
brought against the University of Michigan's under
graduate and law school admissions policies. The
plaintiffs were two white women, Jennifer Gratz and
Barbara Grutter, who claimed that lesser-qualified
minority students were accepted into the UMich pro
grams while they were not.
Cnn.com describes these two cases as, "the most
significant test(s) of affirmative action to reach the
court in a generation."
Powell, who attended law school after teaching for
seven years at Guilford, was part of the legal teams
that represented UMich during the proceedings. This
experience, and the concept of affirmative action
used in college admissions procedures, served as
the focus for Powell's talk.
The plight of Ms. Gratz and Ms. Grutter caught the
attention of the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), "a
nonprofit public-interest law firm dedicated to the
defense of individual liberties against the increasing
ly aggressive and unchecked authority of federal
and state governments," that "aggressively litigate(s)
and publicize(s) a handful of carefully selected
cases that advance the right of individuals," accord
ing to their website, www.cir-usa.org.
Board of tnistees meets, approves budget for 2005-06
Kaitlyn Moore
Staff Writer
Joseph M. Bryan Jr.
chaired his first meeting
of Guilford's board of trustees
from Feb. 24-25.
"Of course we ended up
very early, which was delight
ful, but I think everyone had a
chance to speak what they
wanted to say," Bryan said.
The meetings covered the
budget, the upcoming capital
campaign, and new building
plans.
"For the first time in the
long time I've been here it
was a balanced budget,"
Bryan said. Director of
College Relations Ty Buckner
said the budget has been
Staff Writer
moving towards balanced for
several years.
A $75 million fundraising
campaign is in the strategic
plan, but the trustees will hold
a spring feasibility study to
decide the goal for fall's drive.
The last campaign raised
$56.4 million, more than any
other college in Guilford
County.
Of the new campaign,
Bryan said," It's not a big
number that we just pulled
out of the air, it all came from
the strategic plan."
The trustees also discussed
a campus master plan to
place the strategic plan's
future buildings.
"A college or university,
every so often ... does a plan
NEWS
Powell likened the Clß's stance and policy in the
development of the Gratz and Grutter cases to that
used by Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, which
culminated in the historic Brown v. Board ruling in
1953.
Cheryl Thompson Brown and Linda Henderson
Brown, daughters of the plaintiff for that case, spoke
at Guilford on Nov. 17, 2004.
Bakke v. Regents, a 1978 Supreme Court case,
gave the common understanding of affirmative
action practices as, "Having a diverse student body
is a compelling reason for discrimination," according
to Powell, paraphrasing Justice Lewis Powell.
This decision also stated that racial quotas, even
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C. Thomas Powell spoke Feb. 24
on the recent Supreme Court
cases regarding affirmative action
for the places to put the build
ings ... and usually engages
an outside firm to assist them
at making this 'master plan,' If
you're looking at it from an air
perspective, what does the
college look like?" said Ty
Buckner.
Director of Facilities and
Campus Services Jon Varnell
said in an e-mail that while
the board will not develop the
central green, the lake, or the
woods, the meadows are a
possible building site.
The Quaker Life Committee
adopted a "new intent" on
Jan. 7. It reiterates the
school's Quakerism, and
commits the school to rela
tionships with other Quaker
institutions, "in order to build
reason."
Additionally, that reason has to be, "narrowly tai
lored to achieve that compelling interest," Powell
said. "Even then, you can only discriminate when
you absolutely have to."
The official ruling of the 2003 cases were that,
while the UMich law school admission policies were
acceptable to the Court, the undergraduate proce
dure, which used a point system to determine the
eligibility of candidates for admission, was not con
stitutional.
The undergraduate system awarded points to stu
dents for being from a rural area, for playing sports,
and for being the children of alumni, among other
things. Racial minorities received extra points.
The UMich undergraduate school had a new
admissions policy in place within two months of the
ruling.
"Private schools wouldn't have to worry (about the
ruling) - if they didn't take federal money," said
Powell.
Private schools, like Guilford, that receive any fed
eral money through grants, loans, and scholarships,
must be constitutionally in compliance with federal
laws, including those regarding affirmative action, in
order to continue to receive those funds.
Powell's lecture was part of what Jonathan Malino,
chair of the philosophy department, described as a
"satellite series of lectures" related to this year's
Bryan Speaker Series, on the theme of "Challenges
Facing Democracy." Malino introduced Powell to the
audience of approximately 50 people in Founders
Gallery that night.
"(The talk) was a lot like being in one of his class
es," said Vance Ricks, a Guilford alum and philoso
phy professor, who took classes taught by Powell. "It
was engaging, and he also covered the fundamen
tals and the principles that were behind everything.
You were being entertained, but you were also learn
ing.'^
for the cause
of diversity,
are unconstitu
tional, as quo
tas do not
meet the
Supreme
Court accept
ed reasons for
discrimination.
These legal
reasons for
discrimination,
in the
instances of
affirmative
action espe
cially, are "a
compelling
governmental
interest," said
Powell. "In
technical
terms, you'd
better have a
damn good
mutual respect, support, and
understanding and to estab
lish the College as an impor
tant international institution
among Quakers."
Before the meetings,
trustees ate with students in
the cafeteria and held their
first open office hours.
Buckner expects open office
hours before the October
2005 and February 2006
board meetings.
"They would welcome any
comment about student serv
ices, academic programs,
etc.," he said in an e-mail.
President and Professor of
Political Science Kent
Chabotar hopes students will
take the new chance to talk to
the trustees. He points out,
Mar. 18, 2005
www.guilfordian.com
though, that every other office
already holds open hours,
and that students should feel
comfortable talking to nearer
departments about their prob
lems.
"If you have to return some
thing to a department store
that you bought, you should
be able to deal with the sales
clerk or the floor supervisor,
and not go to the board of
directors," Chabotar said. "If it
is something to do with proce
dures around here, bureau
cracy, whatever, I need to
know that so that we can fix
it."
The board of trustees meets
three times a year. They will
hold their next meeting in
June 2005.38