Sometimes a news worthy event happens that is so ridiculously absurd you’d think it was made up. That was the case recently when a white family from New York filed a federal complaint of discrimination against the University of Virginia for allegedly discriminating against their son and denying him admission because he is white.
This family thinks that if their son had been a minority – or a woman – he would have gained admission to the university with no problem. As the father was quoted as saying, “Minorities with far less qualifications were granted admission.” While individual admission records are confidential, if this were actually the case it would be a good thing.
Anyone who has ever been on “the lawn” at UVa knows it is an overwhelmingly white school made up mainly of the sons and daughters of the wealthy. It is by no means the common man’s place to learn, and it really is not the true “university” of Virginia because most of Virginia’s residents could never afford to send their kids there.
This is an issue that has bothered me for a long time as I grew up here in Richmond and I have seen a tale of two cities. In some of the poorest areas of town, which are predominantly African-American, you have high schools where students’ going to college is the exception, not the rule.
We talk about wanting to fix society and enabling those families who are poor an opportunity to get better, but we continue with patchwork fixes to a larger problem. Instead of putting a band-aid on something that requires major surgery, I think we should fix it once and for all.
The only way to break the cycle is to force state universities to eliminate discriminatory admission criteria and open their doors to everyone- not just those who have made good grades in high school. It is a fact that environment plays a role in how students learn, test and socialize, so those who come from a rich, protected background are naturally going to have better test scores than those who grew up poor.
Allowing children from all walks of life a chance to get a degree would also help stop the rampant racism and discrimination against the poor that still exists. It is a sad fact that even though we live years removed from the Civil War and the official end of slavery the battle for racial equality still rages on everyday.
This can’t be fixed, though, without a total restructuring of the higher education system. I know those from out of state pay the bills for most universities – including those here at Virginia Commonwealth University – because their tuition rates are much higher, but we need to allow all state high school graduates guaranteed admission first.
For a long time I have said that Virginia needs to follow the example of the great state of California and have a open door admission policy to state universities, being that if you graduate from a state high school, then you automatically gain admission to any state university you choose to go to.
Of course this would hurt the budget and run the state into the red. But that always happens, as the state almost never has a balanced budget. Instead of overrunning the budget to give people a ten-dollar car-tax relief check, I would rather overrun the budget to ensure each and every child born here and graduated from a Virginia high school a chance to get a higher education.
Ask yourself: who loses? Not the children and the leaders of tomorrow, as they each will have a chance to go to any state university they want. Not the children who would not have a chance to a better life without it. We hear so often of the downward cycle and how those who are poor are born into poverty, and they’re already in such a big hole they can’t dig themselves out of it. This would break that cycle!
Kids from the manufacturing communities of Southside Virginia who cannot afford to go to college now because their parents are laid off would have a chance. Children of coal miners in Appalachia would have a chance. It would be truly universal, as those with college degrees have more opportunity. More people with more degrees would force companies to play fair when it comes to their employment and payment practices.
It is sad and very real that the only people who lose are the families of the rich, white majority who currently hold a monopoly on the powers that be. Maybe that is why they are so against this.