By KEVIN MILLER
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Archives Reprint

   Two national organizations opposed to affirmative action filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the federal Office for Civil Rights alleging that Virginia Tech is illegally discriminating against non-minorities during admissions and hiring.

    The American Civil Rights Institute and the Center for Equal Opportunity - two groups leading the fight for race-neutral policies in higher education and elsewhere - urged U.S. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Gerald Reynolds to investigate Tech programs "that afford preferences on the basis of race and ethnicity."

    "We ask that you make clear to Virginia Tech that such programs should be made available to students on a nondiscriminatory basis if the school is to continue to receive federal funding," states the letter signed by Edward Blum, director of legal affairs with the American Civil Rights Institute, and Roger Clegg, the Center for Equal Opportunity's general counsel.

    Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors has see-sawed on the issue since early March. It first passed a resolution ending all preferences in hiring and admissions and then reversed that decision April 6 - against the state attorney general's advice.

    Both Clegg and Blum's groups have proved tactful - and successful - players in the battle over collegiate affirmative action. The Center for Equal Opportunity has released several reports citing disparities between academic standards for white applicants and minority applicants.

    Last year, the two groups sent letters to 30 universities nationwide - including Tech and the University of Virginia - urging the institutions to eliminate race-conscious programs or face legal challenges.

    The groups have since filed formal complaints with the office for civil rights, a part of the Education Department, against Tech and three other schools. Two of the institutions - Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University - ultimately changed several of their policies as a result of OCR investigations.

    "We're not really picking on Virginia Tech," Blum said. "Virginia Tech pretty definitively said they are going to ignore the state's chief lawyer. ... There doesn't seem to be much left to talk about with Virginia Tech."

    Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the university has entered into an unprecedented dialogue with state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore's office on its admissions, recruitment and hiring policies. Hincker said some of the programs mentioned in an April 3 letter from Kilgore's office cited by the groups do not even exist anymore, while others may need to be changed.

    "It's unfortunate the Center for Equal Opportunity based its analysis on news reports that were based on an incomplete analysis by the attorney general's office on raw data that had not yet been vetted by the university," Hincker said.

    The groups base their claims on their own analyses of Tech policies as well as two letters to school officials from state solicitor William Hurd in Kilgore's office. The first, dated Nov. 27, 2002, questioned whether race-conscious hiring procedures in the interest of diversity were "narrowly tailored" enough to survive a court challenge.

    Responding to that letter and previous advice from Kilgore's office, the Tech Board of Visitors voted March 10 to prohibit any consideration of race, gender and other personal characteristics during admissions, hiring and financial aid. That decision prompted criticism from students, faculty, Gov. Mark Warner and advocacy groups.

    The second letter, dated April 3, 2003, said a review of some Tech policies found "an array of racial preferences that likely - and, in some cases, clearly - violate applicable legal standards." Hurd also expressed strong concern that dozens of offices on campus - including undergraduate admissions and the financial aid office - never responded to his office's request for information.

    Three days later, Tech board members went against Kilgore's advice and reinstated affirmative action at the university while vowing to pursue "narrowly tailored" diversity policies that meet state and federal laws.

    "We were especially disturbed to see they [board members] were revoking that resolution when, it turned out, they received explicit legal advice saying they were violating federal civil rights laws," Clegg said. "Since Virginia Tech appears to be unwilling to listen to Virginia's attorney general, then maybe they will be willing to listen to the [federal] Education Department."

    Carlin Hertz, a spokesman for OCR, said the office would launch an investigation if potential violations are found during the complaint review. Hertz said his office receives approximately 5,000 complaints annually.

    Tech board rector John Rocovich - a primary force behind the push for race-neutral policies at Tech - could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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