February 24, 1999

Dear President Roselle:

The Delaware Association of Scholars recently sent a questionnaire on race and sex preferences to all full-time UD faculty. It was prompted by the local AAUP's announcement that it intends to work with the administration to establish procedures for treating members of different races differently in faculty employment decisions (aaUP Beat, March 20, 1998). The aim of the survey was to find out where the faculty stands on whether the University should grant race, sex, and ethnic preferences in employment and student admissions, and whether the faculty thinks that the University, in fact, already does so.

As you will see from the enclosed report, the vast majority of the faculty (81%) believes that the University grants race, sex, and ethnic preferences in faculty employment; a large majority (60%) believes that it does so in student admissions; and a great majority--including a majority of even liberal faculty members--would ban both types of preferences (72%, including 51% of liberals, in faculty employment; 68%, including 51% of liberals, in student admissions). Only a small fraction of the faculty (22% and 27%, respectively) supports the AAUP's position.

The DAS is particularly concerned that racial preferences already exist in both employment and admissions at the University. There is strong reason to think that the four-fifths of the faculty who hold this opinion are correct. We therefore ask you whether the University does treat, or intends to treat, members of different races and sexes differently in employment decisions or student admissions and scholarships.

We have in mind, in particular, the University's often-mentioned programs for minority students such as RISE (Resources to Insure Successful Engineers, in the College of Engineering) and Fortune 2000 (in the College of Business and Economics). We also have in mind race-based scholarships, such as the Presidential Awards for Minority Graduate Students, and different grade-point standards by race for keeping some undergraduate scholarships.

In the past, DAS, which believes in the principle of nondiscrimination, has reminded the administration and the AAUP that treating different races differently is illegal under civil rights laws passed by Congress and interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, and may subject the University and its administrators to very large punitive fines. We therefore have enclosed a copy of Racial Preferences in Higher Education: A Handbook for College and University Trustees, which was prepared by the Center for Individual Rights and the Pope Institute for the Future of Higher Education. That booklet describes illegal race-related policies and procedures. Its address on the web (and that for an accompanying student handbook) is http://www.wdn.com/cir/handbook/index.html.

Thank you very much. We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Linda S. Gottfredson, President
Delaware Association of Scholars

cc: Trustees
      Faculty and administrators

Enc: DAS Report
        CIR Handbook