Wednesday, May 20, 1998
Merit-based admission preserves high standard
CAPITALISM: Emphasis on race diminishes quality of institution;
students must earn acceptance
By Matthew Gever
Fight the racist purge of the universities! Eliminate
affirmative action and more. Fight for restricted admissions and
more tuition. Fight for quality education and jobs for all who
earned them.
We keep hearing all these leftist rants about affirmative action
and how a UC education is a right. Where in the Constitution does
it say that people have a right to attend college without any
qualifications and at someone else’s expense?
According to California’s Master Plan for Higher Education,
everyone has the right to go to community college. The UCs are
reserved for the top 12.5 percent of California’s high school
students. The next 33 percent can go to the CSUs, with the
remainder going to the community colleges. Allowing anybody and
everybody into the UCs diminishes the quality of our education.
This is supposed to be an institution to reward those who have
achieved, who have expressed some semblance of ability. In addition
to the ridiculous idea of open admissions, I have heard the idea
that the university should be free. And this money comes from
where? The UCs are funded by working people who pay taxes. Is
Spartacus Youth Club suggesting that working people pay more taxes
in order to fund elitist institutions?
In regards to statements made about affirmative action, the
protesters either do not want to, or simply have not looked at, the
full statistics on admissions. It is true that the number of
African American, Latino/a and Native American admits have dropped.
However, these declines are offset by a similar increase in the
number of students who declined to state their race. We can never
know what ethnicity these people are, nor should we. They have
earned their way into the university due only to their academic
merit. Their ethnicity played no part and that is the way it should
be.
In addition, token racial admissions are not the way to reform
the education system. The real problem lies in primary and
secondary schools. The public education system is failing
miserably, producing children who can’t read and write correctly.
How to reform the public school system is a more complex issue than
I can deal with in this article, so I won’t bother with it right
now. However, it is important to know that token racial admissions
into the university is not the answer.
Affirmative action and open admissions will do nothing but
destroy the quality of education that exists at this institution.
This school was and still is an institution made for people of
sound mind and ability who have earned their way here. It is time
for the rational and intelligent to take back what they have
earned.
For a Libertarian revolution! Destroy the irrational left! Viva
Adam Smith!