Limiting applicants limits diversity

There's a good chance that sometime in the last week, you received an e-mail announcing a scholarship for transsexual, black-hispanic-sino-Jewish women from Kalamazoo, Mich., with an interest in unicycles. Luckily, America is moving away from a world where scholarship, fellowship and other financial-aid opportunities are limited by one's race, religion or gender.

In November 2005, the United States Justice Department threatened to sue Southern Illinois University, claiming that three of the school's fellowships that were intended for underrepresented minority students violated the Civil Rights Act.

The act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin or religion.

Not only do programs such as these violate equal rights, but the idea of limiting opportunities for members of certain groups is antithetical to the basic tenets of President Amy Gutmann's Penn Compact.

The first prong of the compact emphasizes the idea of making a "Penn education available to all outstanding students of talent and high potential who can benefit from and contribute to our University." If organizations continue to limit opportunities, an outstanding poor white student could easily be denied a scholarship or fellowship while a wealthy minority student is accepted into programs for Ph.D.s that are largely funded by the University.

"All outstanding students" does not translate into only certain groups. Limiting scholarships will harm Penn's ability to follow through with the compact.

Part of the second prong of the compact is to "better integrate knowledge from different disciplines."

People from diverse backgrounds can enhance scholarly work. If all Chinese studies scholars are Chinese, how are opinions and stereotypes really changing? Diversity should mean black teachers teaching Asian Studies courses and caucasians showing understanding for Latino studies. If the goal is to enhance diversity, why limit the number of applicants?

The third point of the compact asks us to engage locally and globally to "advance the central values of democracy: life, liberty, opportunity and mutual respect."

The key words here are democracy and opportunity. These terms mean that all people have equal access to resources.

Such noble goals are what we should strive for as a society.

As a Women's Studies minor, I can attest that a man may want to enroll in a Women's Studies program. However, should I ever want to apply for a fellowship in Women's Studies, I might never be able to fill out an award application because I don't belong to the preferred gender for the fellowship. Under the new set of guidelines that are being established nationwide, all students will have the chance to take advantage of all opportunities.

At Penn, there are awards that are currently distributed that lack the color blindness we need.

College senior Jona Ludmir was a recipient of the 2006 James Brister Society Student Leadership Award from Penn Alumni for his successful efforts at integrating the Latino and Jewish communities at Penn.

Currently, the award is only given to "students of color."

"I think awards like this should be open to all students on the Penn campus. It is important to emphasize that everyone is working for this common cause together," Ludmir said.

Last year, I was a founding member of the Kosher Soul Food Dinner, which sought to promote a dialogue between the Jewish and black communities. And while the black co-organizers are eligible for the leadership award, white students such as myself are not.

Why should only minority students be recognized for their contributions to diversity? All students can contribute to diversity, and all students should be able to be recognized for their contributions.

Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade agreed, saying that "increased access by all students to resources that will enable them to enter and complete baccalaureate, graduate and professional programs is terrific."

Recently, $6.8 million in scholarships from the State University of New York system that were previously open only to minority applicants are now open to everyone.

This is a step in the right direction, and groups at Penn should follow suit.

Stephen Morse is a junior English and history major from Oceanside, N.Y. Morsels of Wisdom appears on Wednesdays.

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