Your turn: Minorities don't need to go big time university to receive great education
Much gnashing of good tooth enamel has followed the Supreme Court’s decision that Harvard and the University of North Carolina cannot continue to give preference to Black Applicants in their highly competitive admission programs over other racial groups.
Statements have been made that henceforth Black students will be denied a quality education and hence will be reduced once again to second-class citizenship. Galesburg residents who stop to think about these statements will recognize them as malarky.
Harvard is not the best university for most minority students. It is expensive, highly competitive and assumes that freshmen have skill levels that few public schools provide. Considering the poor performance records in schools in minority neighborhoods, admitting those students to any selective university is setting them up for failure.
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It would be much better if they were to enroll in a liberal arts college like Monmouth or Knox, where they would be taught, not by graduate students in large classes, but by professors in small classes who could get to know them individually and provide the kind of assistance and support they need to thrive.
In the large universities professors are judged primarily on their ability to publish, not on their teaching skills; at Monmouth and Knox, while scholarship is encouraged, teaching skills are absolutely required.
Monmouth and Knox were pioneers in minority education. Knox had its Seminary for women (still commemorated by the street name) until the two were merged. Monmouth never had to admit women because they were there at the foundation. Both appear to have admitted the first Blacks who applied, and over the generations they have thrived.
Neither had the luxury of denying Whites or Asians admission to get more Blacks in because rarely did the number of freshmen and transfers reach the administrations’ targets.
This has been especially true in recent decades after birthrates declined in traditional recruiting bases of rural communities, small towns and suburbs. Consequently, there are opportunities for a good college education waiting there, and scholarships, grants and work opportunities offset much of the advertised high tuition price.
Unfortunately, too many minority students have been sold on the idea that only large universities are welcoming and affordable, that small town life is boring, and that they might have trouble finding new friends.
Those of us who know Knox and Monmouth (and I have taught at both) are aware that those fears are misplaced. Experience shows that minorities are more likely to be accepted into social organizations, to play on sports teams and see other students often enough in classes to become friends.
This is the reality that speaks against the divisive rhetoric of the national debate over affirmative action.
William Urban is a Lee L. Morgan professor of history and international studies at Monmouth College.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Your turn: Universities aren't the only place for minorities to thrive
