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COMICS. 7
Vol. 68, No.l
Circulation 2,200
The Compass
Elizabeth City State University's award-winning student newspaper
Elizabeth aty,NC
February 17,2003
WHAT WILL BE THE VERDICT: THE COLUMBIA TRAGEDY
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?
LaQuisha Tisdal
Apostolic quishaOl ©vahoo.com
President Busin filed a brief with
the Supreme Court in hopes that the
affirmative action admission policies
at the University of Michigan would be
declared unconstitutional.
In Michigan’s undergraduate and
graduate schools, minority candidates
were given extra points in a formula to
decide whether they could be admit
ted.
In 1973, Alan Bakke, a white
student, sued after he was denied
admission to medical school at the
University of California at Davis,
saying minorities less qualified than
him were admitted. In 1978, the Su
preme Court ruled the university could
not hold a quota of places for minori
ties.
The University of Michigan Law
School says it not only as the right to
use race in recruiting students, but
also the responsibility.
“We take race into account as a
factor among many in order to pursue
the educational benefit of diversity,”
university lawyer Liz Barry told CNN in
1998.
A federal appeals court in May
upheld the university’s law school
admissions process after being sued
by Barbara Gutter and two other
applicants in 1995.
“I strongly support diversity of all
kinds, including racial diversity in
higher education. But the method
used by the University of Michigan to
achieve this important goal is funda
mentally flawed,” President Bush
proclaimed in his nationally televised
address.
“Michigan’s program is virtually
the same as those of selective univer
sities across the country,” said Lee C.
Bollinger, who was president of the
University of Michigan when the
litigation began.
Although the president’s state
ments pleased the Republican Party,
it came at a time when the Republican
Party was in turmoil over racially
charged statements by Senator Trent
Lott of Mississippi. The Democratic
Party quickly denounced the
administration’s position on affirmative
action, claiming that it portrays the
true measure of President Bush and
his party.
Professor Richard Lempert,
professor of law and sociology and
faculty associate in the Institute for
Social Research’s Survey Research
Center, says there are many miscon
ceptions that lead people to conclude
affirmative action should be abolished.
For example, he says of one of the
arguments against affirmative action is
the belief that all students now “have
the same potential for learning so
blacks can succeed if they work hard.”
Lempert notes that many schools
attended by disadvantaged groups do
not have the same number of Ad
vanced Placement (AP) courses, which
are given extra weight in the admis
sions process. Further, he says there
is no evidence that grade point aver
ages or test scores are predictors of
success later in life.
Lempert says the first step in
defending affirmative action is to rec
ognize that “diversity is not a common
cultural value in our society.” He says
the University “has an interest in ex
posing students to persons who look
different than they do, regardless of
viewpoints, backgrounds, etc.,” but
society in general does not share this
concern.
He says one needs to look at
history, including very recent events, to
find additional support for affirmative
action. Racial profiling, newspaper
articles about minorities receiving
inferior health care even though in
sured, and the payout of some 54
million dollars by Denny’s restaurants
for racist treatment of customers are
recent evidences that discrimination
and injustice still exist.
“Growing up in the ’50s with Little
Rock, it’s a world I find immoral, intol
erable, and I don’t want to go back to
it,” says Lempert.
Colin Powell, Secretary of State,
also believes that race should play a
role in university admissions.
“It is important to take race into
consideration, if you must,” says
Powell about achieving diversity within
a school.
“I wish it was possible for every
thing to be race-neutral in this country,
but I’m afraid we’re not yet at that point
where things are race-neutral,” Powell
says on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
Although some may find affirma
tive action to be unconstitutional, the
rejected white students are only experi
encing what blacks experienced earlier
in time.
Supreme Court justices will be
asked to decide whether a state has a
“compelling interest” to promote a
diverse student body, or whether the
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th
Amendment forbids giving one ethnic
group or culture special advantages
over another.
Arguments for this case will be
heard beginning April I.The decision
of the court is expected this June.
Information in this article was
taken from other sources; http://
www.cnn.com.http://www.umich.edu.
Shuttle commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool,
Payload Commander Michael R Anderson, Mission Specialists
David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark and Israel’s
first astronaut, lian Ramon, were on board.
In memory of those who dared to do what others only dream
about
Those brave souls that reached for the stars
Six Americans and the first Israeli astronaut
were on board the Space Shuttle Columbia when it broke
apart an fell to the ground.
All seven astronauts died persuing not only their dreams
but the dreams of all of us.
flSBiaisti
Photo and poem courtesy of www.ftmpages.com
COLUMBIA EXPLOSION AFFECTS CAMPUS
Michael Webb
Mdubb4190hotmall.com
On the morning of February 1,
2003, seven individuals who were
living their dreams saw them end
tragically as the space shuttle
Columbia exploded over
Nacogdoches, TX. This tragedy
has shocked the world, but one
administrator at Elizabeth City
State University can personally
relate to the explosion that took
place over the skies of East Texas.
Dr. Jean Holt, Director of
Student Life at Elizabeth City State
University remembers the sights
and sounds of the space shuttles
taking off or arriving back in Florida
and the impact that it had on the
residence that lived near the
Kennedy Space Center.
“We use to watch the launches
of the space shuttles from our front
yard. We lived 40 to 50 miles away
from Cape Canaveral FI... the
launches were always impressive.”
One memorable launch occurred
nearly 17 years ago and resulted in
the tragic explosion of the Chal
lenger.
Dr. Holt recalls her family’s
reaction to the tragedy.
“It was unreal; there were many
that were glued to the television, and
we just couldn’t believe it.”
After learning of the recent
tragedy, Dr. Holt immediately called
her friend in Texas. Her friends told
her about the loud sound of the
explosion that they heard over the
houses that morning and the “feel
ings of sadness” that overcame the
community.
The Staff of The Compass and the
Language, Literature, and
Communications Department would like to
extend their sincere sympathies to those
who lost loved ones in the Columbia Shuttle
Tragedy.