Does SMU promote inequality?

I attended the town hall discussion on Wednesday and was extremely disappointed to hear the state that SMU is in. When I signed up to go to school here I thought I had signed up for an elite school of equal opportunity. However I slowly realize that this is not the case. SMU is an academic institution that practices racial inequality and imposes unfair prejudices upon students of both minorities and Caucasian descent.

The biggest point of the discussion was about student retention between the freshman and sophomore year. A statistic in the presentation showed that the same percentage of minorities and Caucasian students drop out during this summer. The general consensus of the panel of speakers was that something should be done to reduce this statistic. However, they are only interested in remedying the percentage for the minority students. The reasoning for only fixing the current minority retention problem is that there are less of them to begin with, so an equal percentage does not mean an equal number of students. While this is true, do not forget that a minority is a minority and naturally there will be less of them.

One suggestion that the board had made was an incentive program for minorities to stay in school. What this basically boils down to is that SMU is prepared to offer special scholarships to minority students to stay in school. These scholarships would be rewarded not because the minority students are doing a good job, but simply because of the color of their skin and racial background. This sounds like a sweet gesture toward minority students, but isn’t giving a reward to any person undeserving unfair to everyone, regardless of their particular skin tone? Patronizing minority students like this is not a step ahead in equality.

I think it is important to share the fact that I am one of nine Native-Americans enrolled in SMU for the class of 2005. I am part of the smallest minority on campus, yet I am a part of an important minority no less. Native-Americans are often overlooked because they do not stand out as a strong minority due to tribal separation. As my picture shows, I don’t look like a Native American. I can’t really help that, but I still value my heritage. To visit my grandparents I must travel to the Mohawk Indian Reservation of Kahnawake in Quebec, Canada. I have authentic Native American artwork on my keychain and on the walls in my home. I celebrate and value my heritage but I believe that it is incredibly unfair to offer incentives to minorities to stay in school.

By not offering incentives all around, SMU is in effect saying that they don’t care as much if white students drop out because they have more of them; white students are replaceable. If you ask me, all students should be valued equally because regardless of a student’s race, each student has something unique to offer this institution.

One of the speakers on the panel had a title that included the words “ethnic recruitment strategy.” I had been informed when I applied here that a student’s race would not be a factor in the application process and only after a student had been accepted would the race be looked at for statistic purposes. However, this position’s title indicates that this is not true.

The “strategy” that was discussed to make SMU more diverse was to offer incentives to minorities to come here. Once again, this is unfair to the students that are not a minority. Not all white kids have rich parents that buy them BMW’s and pay for their school. Many of my best friends, who happen to be white, are here on loans that they took out under their own names. Many students are assuming a huge financial responsibility to attend here and I think it is only fair that they have the same opportunity for financial equality.

If a minority student is offered a monetary incentive, i.e. scholarship, to attend here just so that SMU can add one more minority student to their prized list, then SMU has just exercised racial prejudice. If a white student finds out that a student of a minority got a special discount, after he has just taken out a $20,000 loan, it is only natural to assume that he will feel cheated and angry. Things like this are a cause of segregation.

I don’t think that it is right to present problems and complain without offering solutions to them. So I have an idea that will help SMU retain minority students and Caucasian students alike and enroll more minority students. It is a statistical fact that on average a minority person makes less money than an average Caucasian person does. So does it not make sense to lower the obscene price tag for an SMU diploma to make it a little bit more accessible? The benefit of this rather than special incentives for minorities is that, No. 1, all students will benefit from it, and No. 2, there will not be any prejudice between the races because of special monetary privileges.

And as for retention, students will remain in a school as long as they feel they are getting their money’s worth. Lowering the price tag of SMU will undoubtedly increase the retention of all students. But will minorities and Caucasians ever be treated equally? I highly doubt it, with the trend of tuition at SMU. SMU has again increased tuition, which only means that in the years to come incentives to minorities will be lower which will lead to increased segregation at SMU.

I urge the higher powers at SMU to strongly consider lowering the tuition at SMU so that being elite means something. And I promise you, the year that SMU lowers tuition, SMU will see the highest rate of student retention it has ever seen.