Illustration by Cody Angell

Is UA's Writing Skills Improvement Program racist in nature? Or is it a necessary tool for disadvantaged students? According to its Web site, students are eligible for free tutoring through WSIP, " · if they are of an ethnic minority (American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, African American, or Hispanic), or if they are receiving any of the following categories of financial assistance: Federal Perkins Loans, Pell Grants, Supplemental Opportunity Grants, Stafford Loans and Work Study Assistance as well as State Student Incentive Grants." WSIP has recently amended its mission statement to allow students who do not meet this criteria to receive help on an individual basis if there is "space available" and "he/she has been referred by a professor." Regardless, some still contend that it is wrong for a state-funded program to be able to provide or deny its services based on race and ethnicity. Others say that programs such as these are vitally important and exist for the sole purpose of leveling past inequalities; that to not provide such a service would be discriminatory. The positive results are undeniable: "The average WSIP participant's semester English course grades before and after tutoring evidenced a difference of 1.37 grade points," the WSIP boasts on its Web site.

Is it unfair to limit such a beneficial service to certain students? Or would it be unfair not to?

Mariam Durrani

Program is reasonable, not discriminatory

Both sides arguing the integrity of the WSIP have a point, but who is right?

First, some background. The WSIP was founded over 20 years ago in the late 1970s to level the playing ground for the economically disadvantaged and ethnic minority students who had gotten a raw deal in the past. UA began the writing program to not only improve those students' chances at succeeding in college, but also to encourage their graduation.

While the program began very nobly in thought, it has come under attack for discriminating against the rest of the student body who aren't deemed eligible. However, we have to realize that isn't true. Their Web site states that two out of the seven mission units are to "assist the community at large" and "serve any student who desires individual professional assistance."

This is on a space-available basis, but the program has opened its doors to the entire university and has realized their older eligibility rules needed modification.

There still is a need for minority and economically disadvantaged students to improve their writing skills and WSIP was originally set up for them ÷ it is only fair. If a significant group would like to reform the rules of the program to increase the percentage of the campus community from 30% to 100%, they should.

However, it is inappropriate to label this beneficial program as discriminatory.

Mariam Durrani is a systems engineering senior. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Kendrick Wilson

WSIP compensates for disadvantaged backgrounds

I oppose discrimination in all forms, including reverse discrimination. Special assistance to minorities may at first seem unfair, but I don't consider programs like WSIP to be a form of discrimination.

Ideally, everyone would have an equal opportunity for an education, a well-paying job and a high standard of living. But, in an America where minorities, with the exception of Asians, hold the highest high school dropout rates and the lowest per-capita incomes, the playing field is certainly not as level as it could be. Most ethnic minorities in America grow up in disadvantaged families and many who go to college are the first in their families to do so.

If everyone in America were created equal, no affirmative action or programs like WSIP would be necessary. But, the day has yet to come when being born into a black, Hispanic or American Indian family means a child is more likely than not to be the next ÷ not the first ÷ to attend college.

Offering special help for minority students is not discrimination against the other students; it's an attempt to make up for what the minority students were not fortunate enough to have from the beginning.

Kendrick Wilson is a political science sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Tylor Brand

Another jive token in the bureaucratic arcade

This isn't really brain surgery folks! Paying for discriminatory programs violates equal protection ÷ assuming, as in this case, that there's no equivalent available ÷ and paying for two programs would make us mutton heads. Here's a brilliant idea: Why not allow the program to be open to everyone? Is true equality unjust?

Now it's possible that it's some sort of "reparation" for past injustices. If so, I'd lump it in the "jive token" category a la Louis Farrakhan (unlike the $8 trillion in Great Society programs designed to help poor blacks in such constructive ways as forcing them from their homes, but we can't count that). If we think we're helping minorities by dropping the bar through exclusionary programs, I'd say we've been drinking cough syrup from the bottle again.

More realistically, I'd say this program is more of a poorly planned idea based on the noble intent to help minorities, but organizers just forgot to check to see that there was another program out there. But here's the real chafing factor: Should I as a taxpayer be forced to fund a program that turns people away based on race? The way I see it, cheating on my taxes will just be that much easier to justify next year.

Tylor Brand is a philosophy sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Daniel Cucher

WSIP counterproductive for stipulating race

From what I've heard, the WSIP is accessible to students who are serious about employing its benefits.

Any student who has been discriminated against by WSIP ÷ or any university program ÷ should write the Wildcat and share his or her experience.

While I know that racism is rampant in our society and certain measures must be made to create true equal opportunity, no good can come from utilizing a system that perpetrates the very wrong it seeks to correct.

The only way to abolish racism is for people to consider each other only for their emergent qualities, not for the color of their skin or the features of their appearance.

In concept, any educational program that turns away students because of color punishes an entire race for being disproportionately successful in terms of economics. Even if such a program uplifts the favored group economically, the would-be beneficiaries of the unselected group pull down the standard of living by being denied access to equal means of improvement.

In effect, prolonging any system that considers race in an academic selection process will ultimately maintain and enforce a racist society.

Daniel Cucher is a creative writing major. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Jason Winsky

Everyone, not just minorities, needs help

There's a word I'm hearing a lot of these days. The word is "diversity," and walking around campus you can hear the buzz phrases everywhere. You hear "a diverse group" or "serving diverse needs" and so on. I'm not sure what or who diverse is; only that I can't be part of a diverse group and I don't have diverse needs. So what does this have to do with anything?

Well what you may not know about me is that I don't really have any trouble with writing. And it's a good thing too. Because if I did have a problem I probably couldn't get any help at the WSIP. Why, you ask? Well, unfortunately it's because I'm white.

The WSIP mission states that the program is designed to help students "if they are of an ethnic minority (American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, African American, or Hispanic)." The statement was recently amended to state that the program will serve "any" student "if space is available." That would make me feel about as welcome as the West Nile Virus.

The simple fact is that writing is one of the most important ÷ and most neglected ÷ foundations of a good education. Almost everyone could use some help, not just a select group.

Jason Winsky is a political science junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.

Caitlin Hall

WSIP for WASPs, too

Affirmative action is a tricky issue. I struggle as a civil libertarian to strike a balance between wanting to acknowledge the economic inequities that to this day put minority students at a disadvantage and desperately trying to avoid supporting any type of discriminatory policy.

However, luckily for me, UA's Writing Skills Improvement Program has nothing to do with affirmative action. True, it includes minority students in its target demographic. However, that is because it is part of a state-mandated program to try to improve minority retention and graduation rates in the state, which are both dismally low.

Furthermore, as Dr. Donna Rabuck, the program's assistant director, explained to me, the WSIP does not in any way exclude non-minority students. In addition to aiming its services toward anyone receiving need-based financial aid, the program welcomes anyone who has been referred by a professor. It also offers two free undergraduate writing workshops each week ÷ Mondays and Tuesdays from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Psychology building, Room 206 ÷ that are open to the entire UA community.

In order for something to qualify as discriminatory, it must be in some way exclusive. Simply making an effort to serve minority students, as the WSIP does, is not nearly enough.

Caitlin Hall is a sophomore majoring in biochemistry and philosophy. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.