Press Release
From the Office of State Senator Rodney Ellis
Jan. 7, 2004
State Officials, Civil Rights Advocates
Call on Texas A&M to Correct Admissions Policies
Austin, TX–Senators Rodney Ellis and Gonzalo Barrientos were joined by State Representative Dawnna Dukes the NAACP, LULAC, MALDEF, and the Texas Civil Rights project for a press conference on Wednesday focusing attention on the admissions situation at Texas A&M University.
Role of family ties in acceptance called `institutional racism’
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Blood ties to alumni, sometimes known as the other affirmative action, are the deciding factor in the admission of more than 300 white Texas A&M University freshmen annually, according to data provided by the school.
Such students — known as “legacy admits” — equal roughly the overall total of blacks admitted to A&M each year. Only a handful of black students a year are admitted because of legacy points.
The Dec. 15 OpEdge of the Forth Worth Star Telegram, presents our first-week response to the Texas A&M announcement alongside a very different opinion from the Ayn Rand Institute.
Like every other response to the Texas A&M opinion, the Ayn Rand Institute refuses to deal with the fact that Texas higher education is under federal supervision for de-segregation.
Therefore, the Ayn Rand Institute can present the following argument: (1) “integration” is a worthy goal (2) “diversity” is not (3) Texas A&M is correct to abandon affirmative action as a means to diversity. But what if (4) “de-segregation” was the original intent of affirmative action at A&M and (5) “de-segregation” has not yet been completed? Then are we not back to step one above: “integration”?
Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN — Minority lawmakers demanded Monday that Texas A&M University set concrete goals for increasing minority enrollment in the wake of its controversial policy not to consider race in admissions.
Source: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2281130
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