Current University fund-raisers not the problem

Herbert Russell
Ph.D. in English, alumnus, class of l977

Dear Editor:

A writer in the Community Leaders' Forum asserted Oct. 31 that SIU fund-raisers have not been doing their jobs to help raise money for the school's endowment. I think the real problem is not the current fund-raisers but the University's hiring patterns during the last quarter century. Many SIU alumni who are old enough and successful enough to help the University disapprove of the common SIU practice of treating race and gender as important factors in hiring considerations.

The chancellor's recent comment that he would authorize an extra $500,000 to make what he called "a good offer" to faculty candidates who are minorities is a case in point. (See the article in the Oct. 15 edition.) In other words, SIUC's leader, as well as members of the SIU Board of Trustees (by their silence), is saying it is okay to discriminate on the basis of race.

Alumni naturally wonder about the visible contradictions in such behavior. SIUC's public documents carry the printed notice that SIU does not discriminate on the basis of race; the U.S. Constitution forbids discrimination on the basis of race; the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids discrimination on the basis of race; last summer's 6-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gratz v. Bollinger forbids classifying university applicants solely by race - after which SIUC announces that it will add $500,000 to an existing $500,000 to discriminate on the basis of race in faculty salaries.

Brilliant, gentlemen. Just brilliant.

Herbert Russell
Ph.D. in English, alumnus, class of l977

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