According to an article today in The Dartmouth, the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship program has changed its name to Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowships and abandoned its policy of excluding whites from applying.
It has not, however, changed its “fundamental mission” :
to increase the number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in core fields in the arts and sciences. The program aims to reduce over time the serious underrepresentation on the faculties of individuals from certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences of these disparities.
As Mellon Mays Director Lydia English was quoted in The Dartmouth,
“What we have done is to reaffirm our mission to bring diversity to the faculties of universities and colleges around the country by encouraging minority students to go on to PhDs,” English said. “We will take anyone who shares these goals and is committed to this cause.”
I hate to be flip, but I can’t help thinking that this sounds like Mellon is now willing to consider fellowship applications from whites … so long as the whites think something should be done about whites being overrepresented in academia. Maybe those white guys at Berkeley (discussed here) who think there are too many white guys at Berkeley would make ideal candidates. In fact, they may be the only acceptable non-minority candidates.
I’m waiting for a First Amendment challenge to these types of policies. It is nearly identical to the essays high school students must complete to get into the “holistic” admissions process at the University of Michigan. What is your “diversity contribution to U-M?”
I find a statement of political loyalty to a cause to be no different than McCarthyism – loyalty against communism.
Loyalty to – and in this case – a demonstrated history of, implementing the diversity mantra.