The Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP issued a statement yesterday demanding an apology and retraction of Board of Visitors member Terence P. Ross' statement that the Office of Admissions may be lowering its standards in some cases when admitting black students.
In Saturday's Daily Progress, Ross was quoted as saying that the University is "clearly in some cases reaching a little bit down our academic standards to recruit black students."
Mojisola Olaniyan, president of the Charlottesville NAACP chapter and School of Architecture faculty member, said the chapter decided at a meeting Monday to demand an apology from the Board for Ross' comments.
In the press release, the NAACP characterizes Ross' quotations as "careless," a "half-truth" and "unacceptable."
"One of the things on the agenda from the national NAACP is the defense of affirmative action," Olaniyan said. "The position that the Board of Visitors is about to take is very worrisome."
But Ross said he stands by his statement.
"There are plenty of academically talented minority students" on Grounds, he said.
Ross' comments were in reference to the controversy surrounding a proposed summer program to expose middle and high school students to various facets of University life.
The program was recommended by a special Board committee, headed by Ross, which is investigating the role of race in the University's admissions policies.
Karen Holt, University Equal Opportunity Programs director, said the summer program could lead to the elimination of using race in the University's admissions process.
"I think [the program] certainly indicates an effort to look for a substitute" for using race in admissions, Holt said.
She said that if diverse backgrounds are not considered when admitting students, there might be a decline in the number of admissions offers to black students.
The Board also has had to deal with increasing pressure to maintain legal admissions policies in the face of national court decisions against the policy.
Last year, the Office of Admissions clearly stated that race was used as a factor in the admissions process. But Ross said this year the University does not consider race in the admissions, in accordance with current laws.
Dean of Admissions John A. Blackburn declined to comment about current admissions policy.
"The Board has expressly reaffirmed its commitment to diversity," Ross said.
"But our legal counsel said that [using a quota system for admitting specific racial groups has] been ruled to be illegal. We want to use legal affirmative action," he said.
University Rector John P. Ackerly III, however, said the Board has not yet decided about the future of race-based admissions policies.
"It's premature to speculate on what the Board will do," Ackerly said.
He also would not comment about the NAACP's claims until has seen them in writing.
But Ross said the Board has no choice in the matter and cannot use race as a factor, despite NAACP claims.
He also said active recruiting is sufficient to maintaining racial diversity on Grounds.
Office of African-American Affairs Dean M. Rick Turner, however, said Ross made an "offensive statement deserving of an apology.
"It comes in an open season on comments and insensitive statements that have racial implications," said Turner, noting that academic qualifications are not the only measure of a student's potential.
"There is no proxy for race," he said. "Until we eliminate the blatant racism in this country, we will continue to have to use affirmative action."
Other universities have experienced negative effects on the enrollment of black students after eliminating their affirmative action policies. The University of California-Berkeley was forced by new laws to eliminate racial considerations from its admissions policies last year.
As a result, Berkeley Director of Admissions Bob Laird said the university experienced a 54 percent drop in the number of black students in the freshman class.
"The effects have been devastating at Berkeley," Laird said. "We should not end affirmative action unless we end the social conditions that create the need for it."
The controversy could defer some minority students from applying to the University.
Students "might feel differently about attending the University if it is not as diverse," Holt said.
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