OMAS: Some students call policy 'necessary'; others call it a 'fantasy world'
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same course, there have always been
spots available for students who show
up on the first morning and complete a
five-minute pre-authorization process.
The College Republicans are plan
ning a rally this week to decry the
policy, which some members say is
unnecessary and unfair. Supporters
of the policy held a rally in the EMU
Amphitheater on May 18 to say the
policy is necessary to create a com
fortable space in the classroom for
those whose opinions aren’t heard
in other classes.
One opponent, University senior
Melissa Hanks, filed a complaint last
week with the U.S. Department of Ed
ucation’s Office for Civil Rights, which
she said is planning to look into the
policy. No other complaints relating to
OMAS have been filed with the office,
OCR public records contact Shirley
Oliver said.
Those on both sides have filed
complaints — between five and 10 —
with the University’s Bias Response
Team, said Kimi Mojica, BRT coordi
nator and director of diversity educa
tion and support services. While the
BRT can’t change the policy, the com
plaints are recorded and reported to
the University’s upper administra
tion, which is looking at the OMAS
policy because “they know it’s a
volatile issue,” Mojica said.
Experts weigh in
TWo law professors who each have
experience with and knowledge of
U.S. Supreme Court cases that have
defined affirmative action for the na
tion for decades were also split on the
legality of the OMAS policy.
Gilbert Carrasco, law professor at
Willamette University’s College of Law
and co-author of “Civil Rights Litiga
tion: Cases and Perspectives,” said the
program serves a valuable purpose
and is legal.
“I think this is entirely consistent
with the Supreme Court’s explanation
of ‘critical mass’ in the case of Grutter
v. Bollinger,” said Carrasco, who has
worked for the U.S. Department of Jus
tice as a special assistant to the deputy
assistant attorney general and then as
a trial attorney in the department’s Civ
il Rights Division. “The reason I con
clude this is the purpose behind eligi
bility rules ... is to ensure an
environment in which students of col
or will be able to succeed and optimize
their chance of making it.”
Carrasco filed briefs on behalf of the
Hispanic National Bar Association and
the Hispanic Association of Colleges
and Universities with the Supreme
Court during Grutter v. Bollinger, a
2003 affirmative action case involving
the University of Michigan Law
School. He said the court recognized in
the case that students of color have a
different experience than others and
that that kind of program supports
their achievements.
Willamette University has an aca
demic program at the law school with
a class that considers different learning
styles. For example, professors in the
class mix standardized and other types
of tests because minorities have tradi
tionally faced problems when taking
standardized tests. The class is very
successful, he said.
“I think the (OMAS) program serves
a purpose and a purpose that is entire
ly consistent with the general notion of
affirmative action,” Carrasco said. “I
would say it’s entirely legal, beneficial
and academically advantageous to the
student body as a whole.”
Howard Ball, political science pro
fessor emeritus at the University of
Vermont and author of “The Bakke
Case,” said that the courts have said
race can be used as a positive factor in
admissions but that quotas can’t be
used. The courts have not seen cases
that specifically deal with set-aside
spots in classrooms.
“The law is absent there,” Ball said.
“By extrapolation you can argue that
Supreme Court opinions have essen
tially said the quotas are illegal, period.
“You can extend the logic to
these quotas.”
Ball, who has been chairman or
dean of departments at three public
universities and has taught at two pri
vate ones, said he can understand that
the University would create these
classes to provide a comfortable envi
ronment for minority students but said
the University would lose if the policy
were taken to court.
The court has said affirmative ac
tion programs must be narrowly tai
lored — for example, they can deal
only with admission and not with
course materials or other areas —
and there has to be a compelling in
terest for the school in creating the
program, he said. The OMAS class
es would fail to demonstrate a com
pelling interest because, in his expe
rience teaching similar required
lower-division classes, all students
struggle with the material because
none of the students excelled
enough in the subjects to test out of
the classes.
“Most of them are going to be strug
gling, and whether you’re black or
Jewish you’re going to be experiencing
the same gut-wrenching feeling for do
ing math,” he said.
Ball said programs for minorities
that provide extra classroom tutor
ing in small groups provide the
same support.
“I think this is just stirring up a hor
nets’ nest, and frankly I don’t think it’s
necessary,” he said.
Student views
on policy differ
University senior Margarita Smith
took an OMAS Writing 122 class
her freshman year and has worked
as a peer tutor for students in OMAS
classes'as recently as winter term.
She said OMAS classes are impor
tant because they build confidence
for minority students who wouldn’t
necessarily feel welcome to partici
pate in a class full of white students.
The classes also provide relief from
the “culture shock” of living in
a place where there aren’t many
people of color.
“I didn’t even have a black instruc
tor on this campus until my third term
here,” Smith said.
Smith said the classes are neces
sary to build a “critical mass,” so mi
nority students can learn and gather
the confidence to later demand
changes in the curriculum.
“Unfortunately, OMAS serves a
necessary experience right now,”
Smith said.
Smith said the small class size was
also important. As a tutor, she helped
many students from large urban
schools where there were so many stu
dents in a class that teachers didn’t as
sign papers because they couldn’t
grade them.
Smith expressed frustration that the
debate focuses on OMAS’s policy and
not on the conditions that make OMAS
classes necessary. She said the OMAS
policy is fair “because for every OMAS
class there are five or six sections of
writing,” and white students can still
access OMAS classes.
Smith said those who are opposed
to the policy are resistant to change
that might upset their real or perceived
power in society.
“I think it’s about fear of change, be
cause if you feel like you have power
in society, why would you want any
body to mess with that?” she said.
OMAS DEBATE DRAWS THREATS
Those on both sides of the debate over the legality and effectiveness of an Office of Multicultural
Academic Support policy that reserves class seats for minority students have reported harassment
or threats.
Linda Liu, advising coordinator and academic adviser for OMAS, said at a Diversity Workgroup
meeting May 19 that she has had a number of death threats and that people have threatened to
come to her house.
University President Dave Frohnmayer said in a letter published in the Emerald May 25 that OMAS
colleagues had received a “significant amount of vitriolic mail, including personal threats” in re
sponse to news stories about the OMAS-sponsored classes.
"While there is no indication that these threats originated within our community, I cannot
state strongly enough how we must support civil discourse and avoid personal attacks,”
Frohnmayer wrote.
University student Anthony Warren, a member of the College Republicans, said he’s received nu
merous vulgar messages via instant messenger, e-mail and Thefacebook.com.
University senior Melissa Hanks, who filed a complaint against the OMAS policy with the education
department’s Office for Civil Rights, said she also has received harassing e-mails from people on
campus. She forwarded one e-mail to the Department of Public Safety to create a record in case the
individual’s harassment worsens, she said.
DPS Interim Director Tom Hicks said that he reviewed the e-mail and saw there had been no direct
threat to Hanks and that the e-mail language was “vulgar but not a crime.”
— Jared Paben
News reporter Moriah Balingit contributed to this report
University student Scott Lu, co
board chair for the Oregon Students of
Color Coalition, said the classes create
a safe space for minorities to speak
freely about issues they want to ad
dress. Minority students in the classes
are able to take the confidence they
learn and carry it to other classes,
where there may be only one or two
minority students.
Lu said that student unions can sup
port minority students in their social
lives but that only OMAS classes can
provide academic support. Students
who’ve taken the classes say profes
sors cover more issues pertaining to
students of color than in other sec
tions, Lu said.
Lu said that students are attacking
OMAS because there is a lack of edu
cation about the program and that he
hopes the Department of Education re
alizes there is a huge amount of sup
port for the classes.
But College Republicans member
Anthony Warren, who filed a com
plaint with the BRT, said he doesn’t
understand how anybody could think
it’s productive to use public money to
restrict him from getting into a class.
He said the rally in support of the poli
cy shows that these “people live in
their own little fantasy world,” despite
being confronted with an obviously il
legal policy.
Senior Dean Scrutton, vice chair
man of the College Republicans, said
admission to the classes based on race
is wrong, no matter who is excluded
from the classes. It’s sad more people
aren’t outraged about the policy be
cause they’re blinded by political cor
rectness, he said.
“If you switch the people or races
around from who’s benefiting from
these classes, it would be a huge
outrage, and everyone knows it,”
Scrutton said.
Scrutton said the classes needlessly
elicit resentment and are counterpro
ductive because the students are not
going to find a workplace with slots re
served for minorities.
“You’re giving them a false sense of
hope; you’re giving them a false sense
of reality. And when they get out there
they’re going to be underqualified,”
Scrutton said.
Scrutton said that if there is an in
timidating environment in a class
room, it should be “dealt with quite
harshly” but that the University
shouldn’t be using educational poli
cy to try to solve problems with
people’s feelings. He said many stu
dents feel uncomfortable in class for
different reasons, but it’s not the
role of the institution to pick some
of them and change policies to
make them comfortable.
“If we’re going to start gearing class
es toward making people comfort
able,” Scrutton said, “I think that’s a
dangerous precedent.”
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