State Debates Quotas, Goals and Guidelines

A visibly agitated Representative Paul Mirski from Enfield, testified yesterday that he doesn?t understand why there?s such a fuss about this particular piece of legislation.

25:45 when I spoke to Rep Harrington about this bill initially it seemed like a perfectly simple idea, to write into law, the language of the second article of the state constitution. What could be more simple than that, especially since it banned discrimination of all kinds.

Mirski and the other sponsors argue the bill to prohibit the state and university system from establishing guidelines based on race, sex, and national origin, augments part of the New Hampshire Bill of Rights.

According to Barrington Representative Michael Harrington, the bill?s primary sponsor, University of New Hampshire President Joan (Joann) Leitzel entered into a contract with students that is nothing less than a promise of quotas. And that says Harrington translates into discrimination.

9:53 the UNH and black student union agreed to the following goals, a black student population of 300 students by 2004, adding approx 50 students a year. There will be no fewer than a total of 10 black tenured track profs? where in effect it is reverse discrimination. It?s time to make NH a state where there is equal opportunity for all, and special for none.

But University officials dispute accusations of admission based on preference. Stephen Reno, Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire.

3:15 The important thing is that no qualified applicant ot the University System is denied a place, and none is denied a place by virtue of a preference being given on the basis of their race or any of the other criteria.

Former Republican Representative David Corbin, who is also running for Governor, disputes the University?s claims.

9:35 I am saying they are lying, if they don?t think they are doing this, then they should release to the public, the avg. ATC score and grade point avg of every black student, and do that for the white student body.

Corbin suggests the solution to end discriminatory practices is to look beyond race.

15:50 the mechanism you call for here is the principle of equality itself. The principle of color-blindness itself. Not seeing yellow or green or woman and man, but seeing human being.

But Chancellor Reno says bill proponents are making the wrong assumptions.

:38 as I believe their position to be, if two equal applicants came forward, affirmative action would require you to show preference, to the minority. If that is what they belive to be the case, then I can understand why they are proposing this legislation. In fact, that is not the case.

The Director of Human Resources for the University System, Joan Tambling says the University uses goals to achieve affirmative action.

:39 a faculty position where we were looking for somebody to teach history. When we looked at the data, the data said, we should be seeing 30-40% of applicants should be women, 5% minority. But when we looked at the applicant pool, most weren?t women. So what we did with that, is ask why, why weren?t we getting anyone with the population to apply.

What Tambling found was a job posting that was too specific. Initially they were looking for a professor to teach 16th century Russian history.

3:35 when we advertised again, we got a pool that reflected the data. SO we felt we had overcome in the discrimination, and I don?t remember who got the job.

Tambling admits changing the advertisement could be perceived as having some quota system, but she says, if the University really wanted a 16th century Russian Professor, they wouldn?t have changed the advertisement. But Tambling says that type of self-reflective process is exactly what the government rules call for.

That means for example, comparing the demographics of university employed carpenters against carpenter demographics statewide. And if your employees are 20% below what is reflected in the larger society, the federal government requires the institution to craft a plan that could remedy the situation.

Tambling says there are many reasons why she thinks the passage of the Harrington-Mirski bill would hurt the state, including 150 million dollars worth of federal aid.

1:00 if we were not able to do that by a state law, we have the potential to loose both that federal research money, and student financial aid, which would affect student?s being able to come to the college.

After spending the afternoon hearing testimony, first year Representative Judson Dexter from Swanzey noticed something was missing.

3:35 as we look at it in the actual concrete part of it, we did not hear any testimony where any individual came forward and said they had experienced reverse discrimination?At this point we almost wonder if we are trying to fix a problem that doesn?t truly exist.

The House Committee has established a sub-committee to continue reviewing this bill. For NHPR News, I?m DG