Letters to the Editor / The Drawing Board

To be politically correct, NU needs more gentile whites

In reference to University President Henry Bienen's Friday statement and The Daily's Monday editorial: One can appreciate their concern for the underrepresentation of black and Latino students at Northwestern, who number less than 12 percent of NU's students. A key reason for this is the overrepresentation of Asian students (nearly six times overrepresented, at about 17 percent) and Jewish students (12 percent, more than four times overrepresented).

What this means is not only are blacks and Latinos underrepresented, but so are non-Jewish whites, who compose about 70 percent of the U.S. population but maybe 55 percent of NU's students (all figures ignore effect of international students).

So let me pose a question for the administration: What outreach programs does NU plan on instituting in order to increase the number of gentile whites at NU? And when can I expect to see the The Daily editorialize in favor of these programs? Or are we only concerned with "proportional representation for me, but not for thee"?

Otherwise, act with some integrity and institute race-blind admissions. You can call it affirmative action, but it's still race discrimination -- just in favor of the races that you happen to prefer.

Michael C. Neubauer

Weinberg '80

Using ethnicity as a criterion undermines Dr. King's ideals

University President Henry Bienen's position on using race as an admissions criterion is exactly why Northwestern has no clue about my ethnicity. Anyone who takes one look at me will be pretty confident in guessing I'm Caucasian, and they'd be right.

But when it came to checking one of those little boxes on my NU application, I figured I'd let them guess. I simply couldn't see what bearing that tidbit had on my fitness to be an NU student. I still can't. I also completely disagree with Bienen's belief that "in this endeavor we are in the spirit and belief of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr." I guess he missed the part where Dr. King said, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

I want to encourage everyone to help make this dream come true. Quit checking those little boxes. Make them judge you by the content of your character as much as you can. No, it's not going to change the world, but it's a start.

Ashley Westwood

Weinberg freshman

MLK Day Web snafus show need for full-day celebration

After watching the opening song and various remarks of Northwestern's MLK Day celebration on the Web, I decided it's always better to see something live, so I journeyed to Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, the beginning of my MLK Day 2003 travels.

Pick-Staiger was full, a personal disappointment, but a sign of our committment to this day. I tried to access the Web cast, but I discovered the server was also full. I joined a couple hundred people gathered at Coon Forum watching the Web cast. I joined them for the rest of Northwestern Community Ensemble's performance and the wonderful poem "Do You Hear the Echo in the Distance."

Then it happened. The screen froze, and the connection failed. I biked up to Technological Institute, another NU viewing location, to see several dozen people watching a blank screen. I headed back to Coon, but there was still no luck. Finally, I biked back to Pick-Staiger, thinking I might try to sneak in, but it was all for naught.

While I was fortunately able to get the last 15 minutes of the celebration on the Web, it will be words that I heard on my second trip to the Pick-Staiger lobby, after the server had failed mid-celebration, that stuck in my mind. After being turned away, I overheard a library employee say, "I guess the only solution is to take the whole day off next year." And while 8,000 students and thousands more employees and community members can't fit into Pick-Staiger, what about Welsh-Ryan Arena? At least let us celebrate.

But since the administration apparently doesn't see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself as reason enough to cancel a whole day of classes, maybe it should take a hint from the thousands who do.

Eric Bjorlin

Weinberg junior