Dear Colleagues,

I am curious about how much this group, "Center for Individual Rights," really cares about 14th Amendment rights for ALL Americans. Do we know whether they have ever brought a lawsuit in support of minorities or women who have been discriminated against? I bet not. On their website it seems that they specialize only in discrimination against white men!! It's a good subject for an investigative feature....
Ali Mohamed,
Grambling.














On Thursday, February 15, 2007 11:55 AM, LILLIE FEARS wrote:
>
>Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:55:47 -0600
>From: LILLIE FEARS
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Dow Jones Fund Opens Journalism Programs to White Students After
>
>Thursday, February 15, 2007
>
>
>Dow Jones Fund Opens Journalism Programs to White Students After Lawsuit
>By PETER SCHMIDT
>
>
>The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund has agreed to cease operating summer
>journalism programs solely for minority students in response to a
>lawsuit filed by an advocacy group critical of affirmative action.
>
>As part of a legal settlement announced on Wednesday, the fund, which
>had been operating more than 20 programs for minority high-school
>students in connection with colleges, agreed to open up the programs to
>members of any racial or ethnic group and to rename the programs to drop
>references to minority members.
>
>The fund, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Dow Jones & Company,
>publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has helped finance the programs
>for four decades with the goal of inspiring minority students to pursue
>careers in newspaper journalism.
>
>Wednesday's settlement came in response to a federal lawsuit filed in
>September by the Washington-based Center for Individual Rights (The
>Chronicle, September 26, 2006). The lawsuit challenged a summer program
>for minority student journalists operated by the newspaper fund,
>Virginia Commonwealth University, and Media General Inc., publisher of
>the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
>
>The suit alleged that the program's race-exclusive eligibility criteria
>violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees
>equal protection under the law, as well as various federal civil-rights
>statutes, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
>prohibits racial and ethnic discrimination by educational institutions
>that receive federal funds.
>
>The plaintiff in the case was Emily Smith, a junior at Monacan High
>School, in Virginia's Chesterfield County, who submitted an application
>to participate in the Virginia Commonwealth summer program last March.
>The complaint alleged that Virginia Commonwealth initially notified Ms.
>Smith that she had been accepted for the workshop but then rescinded its
>offer after one of its faculty members called Ms. Smith, asked her race,
>and learned that she was white.
>
>The lawsuit as filed had asked that Ms. Smith be awarded damages because
>Virginia Commonwealth's actions wasted her time, caused her emotional
>distress, and closed educational opportunities to her. As part of the
>settlement, Virginia Commonwealth agreed to offer Ms. Smith admission to
>its workshop for 2007 and agreed that, if she accepted, she would "not
>be discriminated against on the basis of her race or because she filed
>the lawsuit." The university does not have to financially compensate Ms.
>Smith, but it must give the Center for Individual Rights $25,000 for its
>legal fees.
>
>'Open to All'
>
>Among the other colleges involved in the race-exclusive Dow Jones
>programs last summer were Florida A&M, Kent State, Marquette, Monmouth,
>New York, San Francisco State, and Seattle Universities, and the
>Universities of Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Miami, Missouri, and Texas
>at El Paso.
>
>In announcing the lawsuit settlement, Terence J. Pell, president of the
>Center for Individual Rights, said, "Virginia Commonwealth University
>deserves credit for taking the lead in promptly settling this case.
>Today's settlement saves the taxpayers significant legal expense and
>ensures that this summer's programs will be open to all, regardless of
>race."
>
>A spokeswoman for Virginia Commonwealth University, Pamela D. Lepley,
>expressed confidence that her institution would be able to maintain
>diversity in the summer program, given its location in Richmond, a city
>with a large minority population. "We are already a very diverse
>university," she said.
>
>Officials of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund could not be reached for
>comment on Wednesday. The fund's guidelines for newspapers and colleges
>involved in its summer workshops had previously said that "each
>participant must be a minority (defined as U.S. citizens who are black,
>Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, American Indian, or Alaskan
>Native)."
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>Copyright (c) 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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>Lillie M. Fears, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor
>Dept. of Journalism
>Arkansas State University
>POB 2733
>State University, AR 72467
>870.972.3210, office
>870=972=3856, FAX
>[log in to unmask]
>
>Head, AEJMC MAC Division 2006-07