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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1987)
recruiting, but we make sure they (minorities) have a comfortable stay while they are here. ” Johnson believes the center is a good indication that A&M is trying to improve minority services. “It is about time they did something,” she says. “There are a lot of minority students and a lot of times they need a person to talk to. ” t: he Multicultural Services Center is funded through the student services fee included in the tuition of all A&M students. Even though it focuses its programs and services for the minority students, it does not discriminate. “Our doors are open to all students, faculty and staff here, ” Carreathers says. “If a white student came in and wanted to ask about some special opportunity or some extracurricular activity, we would assist him as well. ” Koldus says the key element to attracting minority students is “just attempting to interest the students in the qualities of our programs. We usually highlight the engineering and agriculture programs. ” Craig says he is impressed with the services A&M has available for minority engineering majors. “There is a minority engineering committee that helps the minority students get adjusted to life here, ” Craig says. “(The committee) takes suggestions, listens to their problems and provides tutors. I can see a need for it. ” Like many minority students, Anderson was recruited for the engineering program. She was originally a chemical engineering major, but changed majors because she was not aware of what it involved. Johnson was also an engineering major when she entered A&M. She attended the Summer Enrichment in Engineering Program for minority students and loved the campus. But she changed her major to journalism because she did not like engineering. Even though Johnson says she loves A&M, she does have some reservations. “Sometimes there is not really a place for me to go, ” she says. “If it weren’t for the black Greek organizations, I couldn’t fit in. I just can’t go to the Chicken, but if blacks had a place like that I’d feel more comfortable. “I think we miss out by not having a place to hang out. ” improved, with the number of their efforts into the future to blacks doubling and the create a university which offers number of Hispanics increasing all its students a broad cultural 77 percent. It appears A&M atmosphere with adequate administrators will continue minority representation. 9, n order to be happy at any school students must find friends, and Brown believes minorities are just like any other A&M students. “They have to find their niche, and if you want to sit in your apartment all the time, you can do that, ” Brown says. Castro believes minority students sometimes segregate themselves and do not want to get involved. He is involved with Student Government and tried to organize a Hispanic Awareness Week, which would have included a march. The plans failed because the students thought it would make them stand out more, Castro said. Anderson says the situation has changed some since she came to A&M. Black students used to have to really make an effort to find something they liked at A&M. Now there are more opportunities for these students. Still, only a certain group of people participate in activities, and eventually events are the same because there are no new people, Anderson says. Anderson preferred the atmosphere at A&M before the heavy minority recruitment began. “When I came to A&M there were so few blacks, ” Anderson says. “We have more to choose from now, but there are also more cliques within cliques now. 1 think it was better then because we were closer. It was so rare to see another black. ” Since 1982, the minority . enrollment situation has ??????????????????????? Should minorities receive special financial treatment? by Melisa Hohlt Should there or should there not be more scholarship and grant money available to minority students? This issue is one on which A&M students firmly stand — at least most students. Jean Ann Green, a junior speech communications major, says that although she isn’t a minority student, she understands the difficulties in securing grant money. Therefore, she says that she thinks more money should be offered to all students. “I feel more money should be available to everyone, ” Green says. “Certainly the same percentage should be offered to minorities as to non-minority students. ” Essline Knox, a freshman computer science major, is a minority student who is attending A&M on a President’s Achievement Award. This scholarship, which is specifically designated for minority students, pays $1,250 per semester or approximately $10,000 over a four- year period. Knox says that she thinks money set aside specifically for minorities is more than OK; it’s fair. “Yes, I think it’s fair, ” Knox says, “because if they don’t have scholarships, a lot of minority students don’t have the money for school. ” Kellye Bowman, a sophomore marketing major, also thinks such scholarships and grants are fair, to a certain point. “As far as A&M goes, it’s fair because minorities have been discriminated against in the past and the University is behind in the numbers of minority students, ” Bowman says. “But it shouldn’t go on indefinitely or it could turn into reverse discrimination. ” If the University wants an elite group of students who are intelligent and are willing to work and if a minority student fits into that group, she explains, then giving them an extra chance through scholarships is good. But getting money solely on the basis of skin color isn’t fair, Bowman says. However, some students say that financial need is not the only reason a scholarship or grant should be offered to minorities. Ric Pena, a senior finance major, is a minority student who is not on scholarship. He says that to increase the enrollment of minority students, more scholarships should be offered. He adds that there should be a higher proportion of minorities in order for A&M to be a world class university. Senior applied mathematics major Alan Cannon is also in favor of such methods as a means to recruit more minority students to the University. “Yes, I think more scholarships and grants should be available because we don’t have enough minority students,” he says. “It’s sad that a university this size doesn’t have many minorities, and the importance of having them here outweighs the unfairness involved. ” On the other side of the fence are those who are against anyone receiving money on the basis of their ethnic background. Those students who are most qualified, both through need and academics, should be the ones who receive scholarships and grants, senior bioengineering major Mariann Farquhar says, and race shouldn’t matter. In the case of some minorities, she says, need may take care of aid requirements, but to award on the basis of skin color is reverse descrimination, she says. Jim Cummings, a junior computer science major, agrees with Farquhar and adds that more need-based scholarships should be made available. Junior elementary education major Shelley O’Glee is more adamant in her opposition to minority funding. She says that everything is pointed toward helping minorities and this angers her. She says that a lot of students she knows cannot get loans or scholarships because they are not minorities and that this isn’t fair. She says that she is tired of everyone being compared to whites.