Scholarship mocks system

USU Republicans offer $100 for 'diversity'

Associated Press
Published: Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006 11:09 p.m. MST
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LOGAN — To dramatize their opposition to minority scholarship, Utah State University College Republicans have created a $100 "diversity scholarship" for minority members who write a 50-word essay on whether reverse discrimination exists.

"We're essentially mocking the current system as it is now," said USU College Republicans spokesman Jason Schane, 19, of Layton.

University administrators say they don't have a problem with the College Republicans' stunt because students have the right to free speech.

About a dozen ethnic minority students have expressed interest in the scholarship, said the group's president, Spencer Taylor, 24, of Logan.

"But we received a lot of flak," he said. "A lot of students called us racist."

Moises Diaz, director of Utah State's Multicultural Student Services, said the students are "oversimplifying a complicated issue."

Taylor said he and other Utah State College Republicans believe scholarships should be awarded based on students' socioeconomic status or merit — not on race.

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