Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Matt Dulin    Barrett Goldsmith    Zach Lee 
                Jim Parsons            Christian Schmidt           Blake Whitaker

Ire education

The College Republicans at Roger Williams University recently announced a new scholarship with a special criterion -- applicants must be white. The scholarship, just $50, requires an essay on "why you are proud of your white heritage" and a picture to "confirm whiteness" as part of its application.

The scholarship, an attempt at parody of scholarships given to minorities, is meant to bring about discussion of scholarships limited to minority applicants.

We agree that scholarships for specific ethnic or racial groups and affirmative action, like many issues in society, are things that should be openly and constantly discussed, particularly in a university setting. Perhaps such scholarships are unfair in their exclusion of potentially worthy recipients, though it is difficult to say that white students as a group have been discriminated against historically.

But this group chose a very poor method to encourage debate on those subjects. The group's poorly chosen words have only made them the object of scorn. Instead of opening a debate on the subject, the RWU College Republicans have made themselves the target of anger and ridicule.

Jason Mattera, the group's president, is perhaps less qualified than most to criticize these scholarships. Despite his alleged opposition, Mattera, who is Puerto Rican, accepted a $5,000 scholarship limited to minority students.

"No matter what my ethnicity is, I'm making a statement that scholarships should be given out based on merit and need," Mattera said to The Associated Press.

A real statement would be for Mattera to give up his scholarship, since, in his own words, "handing out scholarships based on someone's color is absurd."

The next time the members of the RWU College Republicans desire to make a statement, they might be wise to consider the consequences of their actions.

Free speech is good. Responsible, intelligent free speech is better.

Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu