Haney’s
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EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Joshua Gillin
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis'
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
Guest
VIEW
Testing
the system
NCAA must recognize
test anxiety disorder
The Student Life
Washington University - St Louis
St. Louis (U-Wire) - A local student look- '
ing to play college basketball recently
encountered unjustified resistance from the
NCAA because the association refuses to
accept his untimed ACT scores.
Justin Tatum, a 1997 graduate of
Christian Brothers College High School and
a current St. Louis University freshman,
wants to play basketball for the Billikins.
While still in high school, Tatum took the
American College Test but failed to meet the
minimum eligibility requirements set by the
National Collegiate Athletic Association.
After being diagnosed with test anxiety
disorder and meeting the strict College Board
requirements for taking an untimed test,
Tatum took the ACT without a time limit and
met the NCAA requirement.
However, the NCAA still refuses to allow
Tatum to participate in SLU’s basketball pro
gram.
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brought the NCAA in front of a federal judge
and claimed that Tatum was denied eligibility
in violation of the Americans with
Disabilities Act. On Jan. 2, the courts refused
to order the NCAA to declare him eligible,
and no further action has been taken since.
Regardless of die outcome of this court
case, the NCAA should grant eligibility to
those students who are in Tatum’s situation.
Many students experience the same test anx
iety disorder he does, and most have little to
no major academic problems when they enter
college.
If the College Board allows students to
take an untimed placement test to get into
college, then the NCAA’s prospective ath
letes should be offered nothing less.
It makes perfect sense to force the NCAA
to comply with the ADA and allow students
diagnosed with test anxiety disorder to take an
untimed exam to achieve the proper scores.
Test anxiety disorder is characterized by
excessive amicuiues wun concentration, ais
tractibility and mental Hocks. Those with the
disorder may study for hours for an exam,
know the information well, yet freeze at the
sight of the actual test. It is a clinically diag
nosed anxiety disorder and is not uncommon
in today’s global student body.
This case may seem trivial to some people.
However, to people like Tatum, it may mean
the difference between receiving the best edu
cation with a place on an athletic team or a less
certain academic and athletic future.
So far, Tatum has fared well in his college
academic career at SLU, proving he can han
dle classwork at the university level.
Considering his performance in the class
room, this rising basketball star deserves the
chance to test his skills on the basketball
court, as well.
HtartalMIcy
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Quotas corrupt enrollment process
JIM VANCE is a senior
physical and health educa
tion major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist. He
can be reached via e-mail
atjvance@herbie. unLedu
Newsweek is a great magazine. Its
articles are great for getting my
thought process rolling.
So it was no surprise when an arti
cle on affirmative action in college
admissions, in the 1997 year-end dou
ble issue, got me typing away.
Jennifer Gratz is 20 years old and
grew up near Detroit in a blue-collar
family. She hoped to attend the
University of Michigan, but she was
denied So what, you ask?
She had a 3.7 GPA, graduated 13th
out of298 students in her class and
scored a 25 out of 36 on the American
College Test. She was a cheerleader,
active in student government and was
named homecoming queen.
Was she denied enrollment
because she was black? If so, there’s
hell to pay, right? But no.
She was denied because she’s
white.
Does that surprise you?
It shouldn’t.... and it should It
should be surprising because we’re
hypocrites if it doesn’t If you’re
black, Hispanic or American Indian,
then this is blatant racism comparable
to hat faced in the ’60s.
But if you’re white, all of a sudden
..--■—
it’s OK to be discriminated against?
It shouldn’t surprise us, because
she is not the only one being denied
just so schools can say, “Yippie! We
have a diverse campus!”
In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled
in the landmark Bakke decision that
schools could not use quotas but
could use race as a “plus” factor in
admissions.
So I ask you, is being white a
“negative”?
University of Michigan officials
are proud of die fact they use race as a
factor in admissions. But they claim
“it’s only one ingredient in a mix of
factors, like where a student lives and
athletic ability.”
So I guess if you’re black, from
the ghetto in a big city and can play
football, the University of Michigan
will lay out the red carpet. In the
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a new school. But look at the bright
side - the University of Michigan’s
minority enrollment nearly doubled to
a whopping 13 percent.
I was pleased in finding in an
interview with Peg Blake, the director
of admissions here at die University
ofNebraska-Lincoln, that UNL does
not have suchjx>licies. Hie applica
tion for admission to UNL has a slot
for race, but it is strictly optional and
only used for reporting and statistical
purposes. UNL also has decided to
recruit minorities more heavily, rather
than lower admission standards or
attempt to fill a quota.
According to Institutional
Research and Planning, the minority
enrollment at UNL for U.S. citizens is
9.8 percent. Michigan barely surpass
es that, and look at all die problems
they are causing.
I don’t like affirmative action,
especially in college admissions. It
uses race as a factor, but race is irrele
vant. Such favoritism is what this
society has worked so hard for so long
to rid itself of.
I want to be the first to say I’m
sorry. I’m sorry about American his
tory. I’m sorry about slavery. I’m
ogize, it can’t make up for the way
blacks, American Indians and other
minorities have been treated by this
country. I’m sorry that people will
think I’m a racist, bigot or white
supremacist for writing this, when all
I want is a blind system, like justice is
supposed to be.
Disagree? Then you should realize
the system you are fighting for could
very well turn against you.
Do I see a need for a strong
minority presence at the university
level? Without question. But I do not
believe that this need supersedes the
need for the brightest minds, includ
ing minorities, at the finest universi
ties.
We should not lower our standards
to be more accepting of minorities.
Such provisions might denote minori
ties are not capable of being success
ful on their own.
But the question is whether or not
a loss of affirmative action will bring
segregation back to college campuses.
The University of Texas had a fed
eral court ruling last year that struck
down affirmative action, saying diver
sity was not a good enough reason to
favor minorities. This year they had
four minority law students, compared
to 29 last year.
I don’t like the trend, and I wish I
could say minority enrollment would >
not be affected. But I hate this trend of
acceptable racism even more.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a
dream that one day his children would
live in a society where they are “not
judged by the color of their skin, but
by the content of their character.”
Well, Martin, dream on.
^ I
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