BU club offers scholarship for whites

In an effort to protest affirmative action, the Boston University College Republicans (BUCR) announced last week that it would offer a $250 scholarship for applicants who are at least 25 percent Caucasian.

BUCR President Joseph Mroszczyk said the move is in response to the National Hispanic Recognition Program, which requires applicants to be 25 percent Hispanic.

"Did we do this to give a scholarship to white kids? Of course not," BUCR wrote in the application for the Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship. "Did we do it to trigger a discussion on what we believe to be the morally wrong practice of basing decisions in our schools and our jobs on racial preferences rather than merit? Absolutely."

In addition to declaring their racial background, applicants must have a 3.2 GPA and submit one essay on their ancestry and another on "what it means to you to be a Caucasian-American today."

Alex Maugeri '07, president of Princeton's College Republicans, expressed support for the protest but worried that the scholarship, if actually awarded, would only further the type of discrimination the BUCR is protesting. "If it is just intended to spark debate, then the College Republicans commend them," he said. "But if it is actually awarded to only white students, it is misguided."

College Democrats vice president Rob Weiss '09 supported the attempt to spur discussion about affirmative action but questioned BUCR's means. "I don't think that having such a scholarship is the appropriate way to go about raising the debate," he said. "There are definitely ways to look at this issue without making it an inflammatory thing that creates a racial divide on campus."

The BUCR protest is one of a spate of recent events that have rekindled the affirmative action debate. Proposal 2, a ballot initiative Michigan voters approved on Election Day, banned affirmative action based on race, gender or ethnicity.

Also, Yale freshman Jian Li recently filed a federal civil rights complaint against Princeton for allegedly rejecting his application because he is Asian.

Still, advocates of affirmative action say it can benefit students and society.

"While I personally support scholarships that are exclusively for minority students, I think there are reasonable arguments to be made on both sides," Weiss said. "If you're taking minorities only because they're minorities, of course that's bad. But I've read about how these programs increase diversity on campus, which can improve the educational experience for all and that giving minorities educational opportunities allows them to return and contribute to their own communities."

Black Student Union president Dwight Draughon '08 added that BUCR's approach ignores the fact that affirmative action is meant to remedy past and present injustices. "It seems to suggest it's more about race, while neglecting matters of history, oppression, SAT bias," he said.

Maugeri, also an associate editor at The Daily Princetonian, warned, however, that affirmative action could undermine the achievements of minorities. "A problem with race-based affirmative action," he said, "is that it impugns the record of racial minorities who achieve success on their own merits."

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"Competition for jobs, college admission and other stations in life are zero-sum games," he added. "When one group gets affirmative advancement another group is impeded. We're not a society that should be in the business of preferring one minority over another or the minority over the majority."