Don't throw affirmative action out the window

The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court in the recent Hopwood case, which ruled that the use of race as an admissions criteria is illegal, has caused universities within the 5th Circuit (which includes Texas) to quickly change their policies to come into compliance with the law.

Most of these changes are the logical ones. The University of Houston Law Center, for instance, brought its admissions standards into compliance.

But now Kenneth Ashworth, Texas' commissioner of higher education, has declared that the state's minority scholarship program will be terminated as a result of the Hopwood decision.

Nobody told Ashworth that that's what needed to be done. And he claims he has the authority to do it, without approval from the Higher Education Coordinating Board or the State Legislature.

Affirmative action programs in the form of scholarships and grants have been ruled legal by the courts for years. To take a case dealing with the narrow area of admissions and apply it to the area of scholarships, despite the already large body of jurisprudence dealing with the issue, is just plain silly.

Ashworth claims he hates to do this, but that he has to.

If Ashworth hates cutting these programs, then why is he cutting the program before he absolutely knows he absolutely has to? No one has declared that the Hopwood decision extends to all affirmative action programs. Affirmative action hasn't been thrown out the window.

This rush to judgment on Ashworth's part will hopefully not have too much of an effect. But it is yet another setback in the still-ongoing battle for minority equality in this country, and an ill-advised one at that.

Filling our heads with unwanted news

Two high-profile stories raise questions about the soap-opera mentality of the media today.

Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski supposedly had a failed romantic relationship decades ago. Does this have anything to do with his anti-technology sentiments or his habit of sending explosives through the mail? Probably not. But, hey, it's a new angle. And after all, only weirdoes ever have failed romantic relationships, right?

Then, there's Jessica Dubroff, the 7-year-old pilot who crashed in Wyoming last week. Have we heard anything about the system that allows 7-year-olds to legally fly planes, the parents who encouraged her, or the media that encourage people to do stupid things like that in an effort to get attention? No, but we know all about her father's 1993 bankruptcy claim.

Do we really need to know every little detail about the past lives of these people? All this really does is allow people to avoid thinking about the issues behind it all.

No one has asked whether the FBI's stories in the Unabomber case fit what is known about Kaczynski. No one is talking about the drive to become instant celebrities that led to Jessica Dubroff's death.

The press, simply put, is not doing its job.