Illustration by Cody Angell

I'll be honest, I needed help adjusting to college the summer before my freshman year. College is a completely different environment from high school. Not only are classes harder, but also the world around you is different.

To help students from disadvantaged backgrounds and who are of minority races adjust, the university created the New Start Summer Program to help students adjust before their freshman year actually starts. The program lasts six weeks and students attend a morning class, participate in outside activities, and those from out of town are required to live in the dorms. All the while, they earn college credit.

So, why is this program controversial? It gives preferential treatment to students who are ethnic minorities and those who can demonstrate financial need.

Kendrick Wilson

My editor thought it would be interesting to see what students who do not qualify for this program think of it ÷ but the response would be too predictable to shock anyone

It's no surprise that students who aren't minorities and who can't demonstrate financial need will feel cheated that this program isn't offered for them as well. Many could tell a moving sob story about how they needed help adjusting too and could have been more successful had this program been available to them.

Envy aside, the fact is, with our current budget situation, the university has a finite amount of money for these types of programs ÷ and for financial aid as well. Ideally, everyone from all backgrounds could come to the UA and get a high quality, free education with all the advising, tutoring and special programs their hearts desire.

Nevertheless, as our Legislature so often reminds us, this is Arizona, not utopia. The gap between the haves and the have-nots in this state is not only enormous, but also growing. For all those neo-conservatives who think equality of opportunity exists in our state, take a tour of a school on the Navajo reservation sometime and talk to some of the students. Then look at Scottsdale High School. Arizona is nowhere near equality of opportunity simply based on the schools alone. That does not even consider factors from inside the home.

Statistics show that minorities are more likely to be the first in their families to attend ÷ and certainly to graduate ÷ college. Minorities are more likely to come from broken homes, to lack the financial means to pay for college, and to have attended substandard schools. Many would ask, since people from lower income households match those statistics as well, why not just base it on wealth or lack thereof?

The answer lies in the goals behind affirmative action. Racism persists in our country whether or not the white fat cats are willing to admit it. Additionally, most surveys show that minority students' families are not as supportive of their efforts to get a college education as their white counterparts.

Affirmative action and programs like New Start help to counteract the lack of opportunities that minorities will have throughout their lives.

In the recent decision affirming that race can be a factor in college admission policies, Supreme Court Justice and Arizona-native Sandra Day O'Connor eloquently explained why affirmative action must go on. "In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity," she said.

Maybe in a different day this will occur without affirmative action, but as long as UAPD chases a suspect whose only description is a "black man with hair," as long as minorities are less likely to graduate college than non-minorities, and as long as minorities remain the most impoverished of classes in this country, it cannot happen on its own.

I have a good friend who certainly didn't qualify for the New Start Summer Program and could have used it, just like I could have. He is white, and his parents make too much money for him to qualify for financial aid. Since his parents do not contribute monetarily to his education, he may have to leave for a year to work to pay for school ÷ and coming back to college after being away is a difficult, and often impossible, task.

Should blame lie with the Legislature for balancing the budget on the backs of students? Yes. Should blame lie with his parents for not helping him pay tuition? Yes. But should blame lie with minority students or administrators who choose to make some scholarships, financial aid and programs like New Start available only to minority students? No.

The doors that are opened for minorities through these types of programs are doors that would otherwise be closed. It is interesting that opponents of affirmative action often claim that ability, personality, and formal qualifications should be what count when being considered for employment, not race. But, when we make an effort to cure the lack of qualifications for minority students by helping them to get an education, the very same people claim it is unfair to give minorities special treatment in colleges. When efforts are made to improve schools in neighborhoods where many minorities live, the same people utter endless complaints about the unfair tax burden they carry to help people across town.

We must make education attainable for everyone. The unfairness is glaring when my friend, and countless other college students lack the means to finish college, but not the ability. But, taking affirmative action, and programs like New Start away from minorities will not cure the problem ÷ it will simply create more inequities of a different type.