By Kayla Walker
Colleges across the country are opening up scholarships previously reserved for minority students to students of all races, because of two U.S. Supreme Court Cases.
The University had no scholarships that were opened only to minorities so they have remained unaffected by the court rulings. However, they have a few private endowments reserved for people from Italian or Hispanic backgrounds that are not obliged to change their qualifications.
The cases, filed by applicants against the University of Michigan’s admissions policies, were argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.
In one case, Grutter v. Bollinger, the court upheld the use of race as a factor in admissions to the University of Michigan Law School. In the other case, Gratz v. Bollinger, the court determined that the use of race in admissions for undergraduate studies was unlawful.
“A lot of universities have been overly cautious about stuff being prejudicial for some time now,” Janice Contino, director of financial aid, said.
Nicole Rosado, a junior psychology and sociology major, said schools are only hurting certain students by opening the scholarships to all students.
“The ideal situation would allow schools to set aside funds for minorities in order to fulfill affirmative action,” she said. “What they’re doing by taking money away is hurting people who have already been deprived of opportunities.”
Contino was adamant that the University does not withhold aid because of age, sex, ethnicity or religion.
“The only time someone wouldn’t get money is because we ran out,” Contino said. “There’s never enough money.”
Some students agreed with Contino’s sentiments.
“It’s a good thing because it’s really hard to get money to go to school if you don’t belong to a specific group,” Krysten D’Amato, a sophomore public relations major, said. “It’s hard to get a scholarship that’s not just based on academic achievement, so it’s good to open scholarships up to all students, regardless of their race or gender.”
State University of New York and Southern Illinois University have opened or are in the process of opening, scholarships for minorities to non-minorities, according to The New York Times. SUNY made white students eligible for $6.8 million of aid in two scholarship programs that were previously only available to minorities.
Pepperdine University and Princeton University have changed qualifications for some of their programs by allowing Caucasian students to participate.
“The rulings only apply to state schools and that’s why SUNY has opened it’s scholarships because they were using federal funds [to fund the scholarships],” Leon Friedman, Distinguished Professor of Civil Liberties Law at the University’s School of Law, said. “What Princeton and Pepperdine did with their programs was a choice. But any private scholarship at Hofstra wouldn’t have to change its requirements because it is a private institution.”