Although I'm a strong supporter of affirmative action, I agree with many of the thoughts you posted. The way most of these institutions implement it, it doesn't turn out to reflect the original intention of affirmation action anyway. The concept of affirmative action was never intended to require that test, performance, or admissions be altered for certain classes of people. And, obviously in many of our opinions, that would be especially inappropriate for TJ.
My experience working on issues of affirmative action at Virginia Tech and within other areas strongly suggests to me that much can be accomplished through outreach programs. The problem is never that there are no qualified Black or Hispanic kids out there, but that they do not apply for a variety of reasons. It's not easy, but it's possible to make TJ more appealing to them without compromising it's fundamental mission.
In another time and place, I might consider the notion that the very idea of TJ is an inappropriate elitist one. But given how much the school system sucks in general, I really can't - I really hope we see the day when all of our schools are better than TJ is (or was, for us alumni).
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Date: 2004-07-09 10:55 pm (UTC)My experience working on issues of affirmative action at Virginia Tech and within other areas strongly suggests to me that much can be accomplished through outreach programs. The problem is never that there are no qualified Black or Hispanic kids out there, but that they do not apply for a variety of reasons. It's not easy, but it's possible to make TJ more appealing to them without compromising it's fundamental mission.
In another time and place, I might consider the notion that the very idea of TJ is an inappropriate elitist one. But given how much the school system sucks in general, I really can't - I really hope we see the day when all of our schools are better than TJ is (or was, for us alumni).
Okey enough drunken rambling.