If Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave the money to more rich people, he wouldn’t have become a folk champion for the impoverished.
University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, however, can be hailed only for helping out a certain demographic of underprivileged students and leaving others to find their own way of coming up with $160,000 for a Jesuit education.
I believe Fairfield is in the wrong by attempting to achieve diversity with this plan. I think the school compromises its own values of equality by giving so much attention to building diversity on campus.
If you’re going to give a tuition break to Bridgeport students, why not also offer it to some middle class students outside of Bridgeport who will be paying back loans until they are 40 instead of fishing for diversity with a stick of dynamite in Bridgeport.
Fairfield has been able to successfully keep its J.Crew stereotype alive by housing a student body whiter than a loaf of Wonder Bread.
But the school might be finally fighting back with an initiative that will undoubtedly bring more students to Fairfield who don’t fit the current cookie-cutter mold filling the dorm beds today.
This initiative, which offers full tuition scholarships to any Bridgeport high school graduate accepted into Fairfield who also has a family income of less than $50,000, was announced by von Arx at a press conference last week at the Bridgeport City Hall Annex along with city officials.
The plan looks great on paper for the University with a current freshman class that boasts a 9 percent Hispanic population and 3 percent black population, according to collegeboard.com.
The obvious reason for this disproportion along racial lines is socioeconomic status.
According to the national census taken in 2000, the median income per household for the town of Fairfield was $84,375, versus a $37,284 median for Bridgeport.
With tuition as well as room and board skyrocketing over the $42,000 mark, it was once unfathomable for some worthy Bridgeport students to attend Fairfield.
The biggest representation of Bridgeport at Fairfield is currently seen in with the number of students who buy their alcohol from liquor stores over the Fairfield/Bridgeport line.
The plan is leaving administrators across the board with a smile on their faces, and quickly erasing the loan scandal that called Fairfield out on its less than ethical financial practices.
“The initiative is not only close to my heart, but one that lies at the very foundation of Jesuit educational tradition,” said von Arx in a press release.
I knew the Jesuit ideals that drifted out to sea during those “business trips” for financial aid directors would come into play somewhere in this deal.
The plan seems to be a good idea down to its very core. But why not use the money we are generously donating to Bridgeport students to actually lower the cost of a Fairfield education and make the University available to underprivileged students around the country.
William Johnson, associate director of undergraduate admission for diversity and director of student diversity programs, stated Fairfield does not have infinite resources, and is just not able to offer scholarships of such a magnitude to students across the nation.
Fairfield is correct in that a race machine and a Black Violin performance are not enough to make it a diverse school.
It was wrong, however, in searching for diversity in only one neighboring town that has been so far removed from campus for so long it is practically a foreign country.
Once again Fairfield is a day late and a dollar short on an issue that they should have been on top of years ago.
In an attempt to achieve diversity, the University is creating a bias of its own and giving only Bridgeport residents a chance.
It doesn’t make sense to give money to only one region in an effort to promote diversity on campus.
I don’t believe it’s right not to give a worthy student a hand in financing an education just because he or she is not from a town that neighbors the University.
I also don’t doubt that this neighborly gesture fits perfectly into a public relations pitch just in time for Admitted Students Day.
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