U. questions groups' quickness to join suit

Administrators are questioning the Black Student League's failure to discuss its problems with the University's "Mayor's Scholarships" program before joining in a lawsuit against the University on Monday. Assistant to the President Nicholas Constan said he was surprised the BSL did not come to the administration to try to work out their differences. "In all disputes settlement is at the beginning; filing a law suit is a last resort," Constan said. "They are welcome anytime." He added the BSL had met with the administration in the past to discuss other issues. But BSL President Jessica Dixon defended her group's actions, saying going to the administration would not have solved anything. "We have gone to the administration in the past and spoke with President [Sheldon] Hackney about problems," Dixon said. "He says he will look into it and take care of it, but little or nothing ever happens." The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia filed a class action suit against the University on Monday claiming the University has violated a city ordinance requiring it to provide 125 full, four-year scholarships to Philadelphia high school students. The BSL and two other campus groups, the African-American Association for Faculty, Staff and Administrators and the Asociacion Cultural de Estudiantes Latino Americanos, have joined the lawsuit. Dixon also said minorities usually find discussing problems with the administration unfruitful. "Minorities don't think going to the administration is effective," Dixon said. "African-American students have the same problems as they did in 1950 and 1960." Feeling that the administration's ineffectiveness, although not intentional, would be repeated, Dixon decided to bypass speaking with administrators. "If working with the administration had been successful in the past, I would have gone to them," Dixon said. In addition, Dixon said the BSL should not have had to go to the administration because the University was aware of the issues and knew this past summer that a lawsuit would be filed. "This is something the University should have been paying attention to, and they could have addressed our concerns a while ago," Dixon said. "We should not have had to come to them because no one was ignorant about it." Hackney, however, met with Mayor Wilson Goode in June to discuss the scholarships. And Hackney said earlier this month that both the city and the University agree the University is meeting its commitments. Dixon said the University took this measure only becuse they knew a lawsuit was going to be filed. But Constan disagreed with Dixon, saying that the lawsuit took the University by surprise. "To my knowledge the University did not know the lawsuit was coming," he said. In addition, Dixon said she did not discuss the BSL's complaints with the administration because she did not know exactly how the lawsuit was progressing and did not want to upset it. ACELA President Pam Ureta also said she did not talk to administrators before filing suit because she thought Hackney and the administration had already made the decision not to change the University's policy. The University believes it only has to provide 125 scholarships in any one year while the lawsuit claims the University must provide 125 new, four-year scholarships each year.

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