BY: Sterling Williams
One of the main goals of Brigham Young University is to bring a mixture of different cultures and backgrounds together to enhance the educational progression of all students. Being born and raised by my Japanese mother, I believe this mission is an excellent goal and worthy to pursue, but the practices to bring about its success aren't always as admirable.
The Multicultural Student Services provides programs and services for BYU multicultural students; one service is distributing scholarships among these students. This particular practice is detrimental despite the good intentions. Instead of funding going toward those who show academic excellence, it goes toward those with a unique background. Multicultural students should not receive any financial aid or scholarships to attend BYU solely because they are of a minority race.
As a BYU student of Japanese descent, I have benefited from the MSS scholarships. Do I believe they are completely fair? No. They prevent qualified individuals from receiving any type of scholarship or greatly reducing them only because their ancestry line isn't 'unique' or 'special' at BYU. Is this not the very prejudice we've all been taught to fight against since the early stages of our lives?
Some believe the MMS's procedure for scholarships ensures qualified individuals of all backgrounds receive scholarships. If the number of qualified students in all races is equal, then having the MSS distribute any scholarships is absurd.
To emphasize this financial imbalance for BYU students, I turn to my personal life. My brother's schooling before BYU was a rough experience. He didn't have the academic prowess most parents wish for in their children. After stumbling along in high school, he still held the desire to further his education and decided to apply for BYU. He was accepted, and to my amazement, he was offered a scholarship from the MSS office.
I don't question his acceptance into BYU since academics are not the sole factors, but the scholarship I do question. Upon my admittance to BYU, I also received a scholarship of similar amount. The problem was I had graduated from high school with just over a 4.0 GPA and was in the top five in my class. Fortunately, I also received an academic scholarship from the BYU Scholarship Office. If all funding were based in one department to offer scholarships disregarding demographics, the distribution would be much fairer.
These unequal scholarships hurt students of all backgrounds. There are many 'white' students working hard, but sadly aren't offered anything to help with schooling. School can set anyone back into debt for years and hurt financial standings that will follow students for the rest of their life. As for 'non-whites,' we question why we receive these scholarships over other students. Are we not good enough to earn them ourselves?
Many feel these funds are given out of pity and tell us we cannot achieve success without special help. We are labeled as needy students who cannot compete. We must lower the playing field to our level. As multicultural students, we aren't the only ones noticing these labels. As BYU students become more familiar with the MSS office, a subconscious feeling of resentment builds toward minority groups. Some may think we are only here to diversify our campus.
Though I support diversity, I don't believe the place for leveling the playing field is at a private university. Now is the time to reap the rewards of our harvest. If diversity is not present, it should not be artificially placed into our population at another student's risk. We shouldn't prevent more deserving students in obtaining what they've worked so hard to get.
Sterling Williams is a freshman from Salinas, Calif., studying computer science.