Officials back non-discrimination policy
By Brent Yarina
Staff Reporter

As public universities wait to see how a Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action will affect their admissions policies, Dean of Admissions Ray Brown said TCU will continue its practice of evaluating students on an individual basis.

Brown said the university’s admissions department is governed by the statement of non-discrimination, which prohibits TCU from discriminating on the basis of personal status, individual character or group affiliation. He said no student will be admitted to the university for any single reason, because TCU looks at every element a student can bring to the university during the admissions process.

“As we become more selective, more students who are qualified and able to do the work here will be turned away,” Brown said. “We simply don’t have space for them.”

He said TCU creates a diverse university by attracting students with different life experiences. Therefore, Brown said diversity has little to do with a person’s race.

Brown also said TCU doesn’t use affirmative action to create a diverse campus.

Cornell Thomas, special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community, said the university is trying to create a diverse way of looking at life so students going into careers will know how to work with people from other cultures and backgrounds.

Thomas said the university needs to create an environment where a number of “voices” can be heard if TCU wants to be recognized for its global perspective and diverse, supportive learning community. To attract the most voices, he said, TCU considers students’ essays and conversations as a large part of the admissions process.

Rishad Gandhi, a junior marketing major, said he feels TCU should implement affirmative action because it would increase diversity. He said a select few departments on campus have an adequate number of minorities, but some have almost none.

Gandhi said TCU falsely represents itself as a diverse institution to international students. He said the university promoted itself as a place of higher learning for all races, which really this isn’t true.

Brown said the Community Scholars Program plays an important role in creating a diverse university. He said the program was created to build positive relations with local high schools because students from these areas thought TCU was too expensive.

“I want a really diverse bunch of students here,” Brown said. “I don’t want TCU to be a place where every student has the same life experiences. All students who are here should take pride in the fact that they’ve earned their admission to TCU.”

Chris Taylor, a sophomore finance and accounting major, said affirmative action should not exist because causes the students who worked hard to believe they have been cheated and makes minorities feel unwelcome.

“I think that admissions should be based on the quality and character of the student,” Taylor said. “Race should never even be considered or known to admissions.”

Brent Yarina