I heard on the news a bit ago that Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, IL will become the college in the United States to directly ask prospective students on admission forms if they consider themselves members of the LGBT community. The question is optional and doesn't affect acceptance. Answering yes might qualify them for up to a 30% scholarship against tuition.
Here's a short article in the Chicago Tribune about it.
While even a 30% reduction in tuition at this school would not enable a lot of students to attend there, the skeptic in me tells me there are so many ways to misuse this information it would be risky for a student to say "yes".
Hugs
Carla Ann
Comments
Not so sure.
If answering yes to such a question could potentially give me a 30% discount, and if the cost was the limiting factor on if I could attend or not, then I suspect I may be tempted to answer yes, even if it wasn't quite true.
Being LBGT has become more acceptable in recent years, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that people are admitting to at least being slightly bisexual if it will potentially save them money.
Perhaps a more important question, and one that annoys me no end, is why should one group of people be given preferential treatment over another. I am all for equal opportunities as long as it's that: equal. Positive discrimination is just as bad, if not worse, than normal discrimination. Perhaps my view is slightly skewed by being in the most discriminated against group: white male.
the most discriminated group?
really? more than women, who make 70 cents on the dollar compared to men? More than most minority groups, who are still struggling to be treated based on their abilities? And more than us poor trans people, who can be fired, denied housing and medical care without any recourse?
Dorothycolleen
Wish they'd had it earlier
I wish they'd had it earlier, I could have used the help.
If you consider that Elmhurst is a religiously based institution, this is a pretty big deal.
Janet, Elmhurst College, Class of 1975
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
Yeah Me too
quote [f you consider that Elmhurst is a religiously based institution, this is a pretty big deal.]
That's what I thought, and why I wondered if it was a trick of some sort, some way to identify problems beforehand, and prevent them by quietly choosing other entrants over the "positives".
Still, I have to agree, any scholarship based on anything other than merit is just wrong, regardless of the goal, IMHO.
Hugs,
Carla Ann
Don't Know If It Has Relevance Here...
...but wealthy alumni sometimes endow scholarships for particular types of people: Masons, cheerleaders, Italian-Americans, sports statisticians (I wish!), youths whose parents belong to the union that endowed it. (There's a point at which the university will turn the money down rather than administer it in a way they abhor; probably depends on the school how far they'll go.) I'm not saying that it's right or wrong, but it's preferential only from a monetary standpoint; the student gets no preference in getting admitted.
If some major benefactors offered scholarships to LGBT individuals, even a religious school might take them up on the offer rather than get stiffed when they want money from that source for building improvements or such. No idea, of course, whether that's what's happening here.
Eric