College Republicans at Boston University sparked nationwide debate by creating a scholarship exclusively for white students last month.
The group created the scholarship as a demonstration against minority scholarships, BU College Republicans President Joe Mroszczyk said, because he and his fellow group members believe such scholarships are discriminatory.
The BU College Republicans set up the $250 scholarship to drive home their point that race should not be a contributing factor for college scholarship considerations, Mroszczyk said.
"We're not advocating for a white scholarship," Mroszczyk said. "We're trying to say that no scholarship should have a racial component."
Mroszczyk said he is not opposed to need-based scholarships, but race should never be a factor.
While Mroszczyk is not alone in his opinion, University of Wisconsin journalism professor James Danky said many Americans are missing the point of minority scholarships.
"People like the College Republicans are fond of the term 'equal playing field,' but they've never been on an unequal playing field," Danky said. "The No. 1 factor of kids going to college is whether their parents went to college. That begins to indicate who goes to college in the first place."
Danky pointed out that hard work is oftentimes not enough to get accepted to college.
"Suggesting that in order to arrive at the American educational experience all you have to do is work hard is unrealistic," Danky said.
Danky's viewpoint mirrors that of a number of groups who disagree with the premise of the "whites only" scholarship, such as the national group College Democrats.
The BU College Republicans did not expect national attention, Mroszczyk said, but he added the response has mainly been positive.
However, Eli Lewien, chair of the College Democrats of Madison, said the "whites only" scholarship moves the discourse about racial scholarship considerations in the wrong direction.
"[The BU College Republicans] are operating on flawed reasoning, and they did it in bad taste," Lewien said. "Universities use scholarships to create diversity on campus and create a positive atmosphere. [The 'whites only'] scholarship doesn't do that."
According to BU junior Jennie Smith, the reaction on campus to the College Republicans' scholarship was tame compared to the national reaction.
"I think the reaction on campus wasn't as big as it was nationally," she said. "I'm surprised there hasn't been a big reaction here because people at BU tend to be more Democratic."
The scholarship highlights a major political divide between conservatives and liberals who feel differently on a number of racial issues including affirmative action.
This is not the first time that the practices of universities have been at the center of affirmative action controversy.
The University of Michigan's admissions practices were called into question in the U.S. Supreme Court. In January 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that race could be considered in admissions decisions, according to a University of Michigan Media Relations and Public Affairs release.
The Supreme Court ruled that race could be considered in order to achieve diversity, but that the point system in use by the University of Michigan was "too narrowly tailored" to achieve that end and was therefore unacceptable.
— Joanna Pliner contributed to this report.
