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Faculty members support Senate admission statement

Faculty and administrators are supporting the statement released Sunday by the Faculty Senate condoning race-based factors used in current University admissions policies.

Faculty Senate Chairman David T. Gies, author of the statement, said the response to it has been "overwhelmingly supportive."

He said he attributes this to both the language and the "spirit" of the statement.

According to the statement, equal opportunity is strongly supported at the University and that it is one of the "stated goals of higher education.

"The consideration of race, as one of many factors for admission to the University, is both appropriate and justified," the statement reads.

"I agree that the University, particularly a public university, should endorse educational goals of equal opportunity," said James Clawson, a Faculty Senate member and associate Darden School professor.

Frederick Damon, anthropology professor and Senate member, said he also agreed with the statement.

"In the 23 years or so that I have been here, there has only been a change for the better ... the world is very complex," Damon said. "There should be multiple standards for who should be coming here and who shouldn't."

In response to Board of Visitor member Terrence P. Ross' recent comment that in some cases the University has lowered its standards to admit minority students, many faculty members said they strongly disagree.

Faculty said they feel that numbers and test scores should not be the only determining factor in admissions, as they represent only one part of the whole student.

"I do not believe the standards are being lowered - minority students that I have taught here are not unqualified to be here," Assoc. Anthropology Prof. Ellen Contini-Morava said.

Louis Bloomfield, Senate member and physics professor, said student admissions should not be based on numbers alone, but on a thought process that selects the best group of students.

"We love to rank all of the colleges, all of the students in a class ... some of it is a waste of time," Bloomfield said.

"What's fair about [admission] entirely based on test scores or past academic achievement?" he said. "There are other qualities to a person. It is worth making selections on what makes the best overall group. We want to build a team."

Damon said he also looks at the diversity in his classes as a benefit to the University.

"I do not see, in my class work, a distinction based on race. I have Hispanics, African-Americans, European students ... I enjoy the diversity in the classroom and the more we can do to ensure diversity, the better off we will be and our society will be," he said.

Gies also said students should be judged by a variety of factors and not specific standards.

"Why aren't we asking about 'standards' for athletes, for children of big donors, for children of faculty?" he said.

He added that "where you've been born - in the Commonwealth of Virginia - is a factor in admission [at the University], why isn't race an appropriate factor?

"I think that we should do it the right way, not the easy way," Gies said.

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