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Zack Quaintance
Daily Egyptian

Before the Justice Department threatened to sue the University over three graduate fellowships, it investigated SIUC's hiring practices for signs of illegal preferences toward minorities, documents show.

In a July 19 letter obtained by the Daily Egyptian through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Justice Department told the University it would investigate fellowship programs and hiring practices for signs of discrimination.

"Information obtained by the (Justice Department) indicates (SIUC) may be engaged in a pattern or practice of employment discrimination," department attorneys wrote in the letter.

The department also wrote that the University might be in violation of the law, "by recruiting and hiring only minorities and women for selected faculty positions."

After completing the investigation, the Justice Department sent a letter Nov. 4 citing three graduate fellowships as discriminatory against whites, males and non-preferred minorities.

Although the three awards were used as an example, the federal agency called for the University to cease all paid programs for undergraduate and graduate students that were restricted on the basis of race, gender or nationality. The government also requested "make-whole relief" for the victims of discrimination resulting from the programs.

SIUC attorneys are meeting with Justice Department officials in an attempt to reach a resolution outside of the courtroom, a University spokesman has said.

Both sides have vowed silence during the talks, and no details are available on the investigation into hiring practices.

Lawyers, experts and administrators have said it is odd for the Justice Department to investigate discrimination in higher education because past cases have been handled by the U.S. Department of Education. However, according to the Justice Department's Web site, the organization investigates questionable employment issues within state agencies.

Currently, SIUC hiring procedures listed on the University Web site identify all tenure-track faculty and select administrative professional appointments as "targeted positions for women and minorities."

Dennis Lowry, a professor in advertising, said he was a part of a search committee in 2003 in which a colleague told him the position had been identified as targeted for minorities. Lowry asked former SIU General Counsel Peter Ruger what the phrase meant, he said.

"I just wanted to get a clarification," Lowry said. "What does it mean to have a targeted position?"

In a Nov. 11, 2003 e-mail to Lowry obtained by the Daily Egyptian, Ruger responded: "The definition of a 'targeted minority position' isn't known to me. That is not a term found in the law."

The Center for Equal Opportunity, an anti-affirmative action think tank, initially contacted the University with its concerns last year. When administrators did not respond, it filed a complaint with the Justice Department, said Roger Clegg, the group's legal counsel. The center complained about both about SIUC's fellowship programs and hiring practices.

The organization analyzes universities in which students or faculty complain of discrimination to determine if the law is being broken, Clegg said.

"It's a quota, an absolute quota," Clegg said of SIUC labeling all positions minority targeted. "The Supreme Court has made clear that's illegal."

Affirmative action is an accepted remedy for past discrimination, he said, and in cases where segregation has historically occurred, it is legal to use racial preferences.

"From what I know about Southern Illinois (University), it does not have a recent history of segregation," Clegg said.

SIU's annual Minority, Women and Disabled Students, Faculty and Staff 2005 report shows meager gains in minority employment.

In the past five years, total minority employment increased by 0.7 percent, bringing the total to 13.5 percent. Minority student enrollment is 19.3 percent.

Chancellor Walter Wendler has said one of his goals for SIUC is a population reflective of the state of Illinois, which is 73.5 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.