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Professor suspected of lawsuit involvement

BY CALEB HALE
THE SOUTHERN

Tuesday, November 15, 2005 6:51 AM CST

CARBONDALE - Embattled history professor Jonathan Bean's criticisms of special privileges for minority students seems to have raised suspicion about his role regarding federal questions into alleged race discrimination practices at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

A United States Department of Justice lawsuit threatened against the university over three graduate fellowships has escalated tensions and paranoia in some areas of campus, particularly those serving African-American students. The justice department says it will sue SIUC if it does not end its Bridge to the Doctorate, Proactive Recruitment and Multicultural Professionals for Tomorrow and Graduate Dean's fellowship programs by Friday.

Federal officials claim the programs intentionally discriminate against white males and non-preferred minorities, a violation of the 1964 Civil rights Act. No white males have received awards in any of the named fellowships since their inceptions. University officials are trying to meet with justice department representatives this week to discuss the matter.

Bean - who was publicly chastised by many fellow faculty members earlier this year for allegedly distributing racist material as optional reading assignments to students - is one of the individuals suspected by some faculty supporting the fellowships to have contacted an anti-affirmative action group, the Center for Equal Opportunity, which typically precludes federal intervention on issues of discrimination.

Bean wouldn't confirm or deny having contacted the center when asked by The Southern Illinoisan Monday.

"I'll say no comment," he said. "All I'll say is I heard they (the center) heard from several faculty and students on campus."

In the past, Bean has warned the campus some of SIUC's race-exclusive scholarships and programs could one day land it in trouble. Bean has written a book and several other documents pertaining to affirmative action practices in society. He also served on an affirmative action committee set up by Chancellor Walter Wendler in 2002 to address such issues.

Bean noted the university has yet to implement the committee's recommendations from the committee about legal vulnerabilities, some of which addressed race-exclusive scholarships.

"I'm for affirmative action in its original sense, seeking out all applicants, including minorities," Bean said. "The original sense of affirmative action was to broaden the applicant pool, not narrow it.

"All I'll say is I'm not alone and surveys show large majorities of students and most faculty favor equal opportunity but not special privileges," he added.

SIUC Black American Studies director Joseph Brown didn't mention Bean specifically but said the lawsuit threat is the latest episode in a long series of moves against affirmative action made locally.

"I think that it's a distraction from the real issues; I think it goes counter to the 'Southern at 150' goals, and I think there are far too many people on the faculty who would see this issue as complicated when it is really very simple," Brown said. "I think this is another attempt to undermine affirmative action at the root."

Brown said SIUC is not allowing unqualified students into fellowships just because they are a certain color. The university is on a mission to have its student population reflect the diversity found throughout the state. Right now, Brown added, SIUC has a long way to go.

Brown suspects the justice department is attempting to establish a legal precedence against affirmative action and said unfortunately, what needs to be fought in Congress is being fought at SIUC.

Center for Equal Opportunity Vice President and General Counsel Roger Clegg said universities often agree to end racially exclusive programs when the group brings it to their attention. The center first contacted SIUC last year, he added, and to date nothing has changed.

Clegg, a former official in the Justice Department's civil rights division under the Reagan and senior Bush administrations, said diversity goals aren't reasons for universities to practice program enrollment that prefers one color while shunning another.

"That makes it more difficult for SIU to argue it needs to engage in this type of program," Clegg said. "If Harvard and Yale can achieve it without running these racially exclusive programs, then SIU shouldn't have to run these types of programs."

One of the fellowships, the Bridge to the Doctorate, was started in 2004 with funds from the federal National Science Foundation. The NSF synopsis of the program states the goal of the fellowship is "increasing the number of students who earn doctorates in (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), particularly those from populations underrepresented in STEM fields."

The synopsis does not specifically mention special attention to minority students, and Clegg said universities are often scrutinized on a case-by-case basis as to the validity of running programs in a manner to achieve diversity.

Clegg noted a white or Asian student can bring as much diversity to a group as a black or Hispanic student.

SIUC had a total of 14,330 white students, 2,588 black students, 559 Hispanic students, and 339 Asians enrolled in fall of 2003. In 2001, there were roughly 1,664 combined scholarships, grants, fellowships and traineeships.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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