Racial discrimination in official programs has been eliminated at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale under terms of a consent decree entered into with the Department of Justice. The decree requires that the University end all race-based graduate fellowships.

Southern Illinois University has a tradition of being the first and the best Illinois institute of higher learning outside Chicago to give opportunity to minorities, and president Glenn Poshard swears the tradition won't change - even as the university ends minority exclusivity in fellowships under orders from the federal government.

SIU filed a consent decree in the federal court in Benton Wednesday, the same day the U.S. Department of Justice filed its official complaint about three graduate fellowship programs it claims violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from hiring people exclusively based on race, nationality or gender. The combined effect of the two actions stops further legal proceedings, as long as the university adheres to a list of requirements set down by the agency for the next two years (see sidebar for details). SIU escaped the settlement with no fines, penalties or expenses other than its own legal costs.

During a press conference after the special board meeting Wednesday in which trustees unanimously moved to accept the consent decree, Poshard said for whatever reason the government zeroed in on SIU's practices in minority recruitment, officials were going to make the change an opportunity to commit to opening up all its graduate aid programs for all students in the system.

Excuse me, but that is an admission that the graduate aid programs were not open to all, and that you had been discriminating. There is no other way to parse that statement. For you to then cast aspersions upon the Justice Department for investigating SIU or upon the motives of those who reported your violations of federal law and the constitutional rights of every student at the school is obscene. But Poshard did exactly that – while at the same time denying that was his intent.

"I don't know the motivation of the people who maybe contacted the people of the justice department on this," Poshard said. "I don't judge their motivation, but whatever it is, we're going to do this because it is the right thing to do."

That very statement indicates that you do judge their motivations and find them wanting. You imply that there was some malignant intent, and that you folks are just the innocent victims. But that isn’t the case at all – those who reported you were clearly seeking the end to illegal racial discrimination, and you folks fought it until it was clear you were going to lose. The folks who made the report were clearly on the side of the angels, sir, and you were not. Get off your high horse, break out the sack-cloth and ashes, and start doing some serious penance.

Can and should SIU-C reach out and recruit women and minorities? You bet, and it is something that I know the school has done in a significant manner for decades (my family has over a half century of association with the University as both students and faculty). That is something that Salukis should take pride in. Racial and gender exclusion, though, betray that heritage, and must be eliminated as a matter of principle, not just as a matter of abiding by the law.

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