The following excerpt from an article is from the Oct. 27, 1977, edition of The Oswegonian. Roger House, a writer at the time, writes about the education system and racial prejudice, referencing the court case Bakke vs. California. Due to changes in Associated Press style, the following article does not follow current AP style, and it is an incomplete article due to the size of the sections at the time versus current section size. 

Racial dilemmas are once again prime issues for the media as the Alan Bakke case reaches the Supreme Court, and N.Y.C.’s board of Education is ordered to intergrate their classrooms by the federal government. It is astonishing and rather saddening the way races are pitted against each other in situations where the only conflict is due to race, and the other problems they point toward are totally ignored. it is immoral the way racial fears and prejudices are called upon in these heated situations.

Let’s first examine the Alan Bakke vs. the University of California case. It is a case of tremendous relevance for all minorities and women, and with America’s right-ward movement combined with poor economic times, the question-ability of affirmative action programs were bound to arise. it seems as though our country’s power base of white males will give just so much and then in their myopia take it away on the premise of ‘they had their chance.’ What they don’t realize is how discrimination damaged the people so badly and horribly, and the damage is so deep rooted it will take years of affirmative action to reach a state of mediocrity. The need for black professionals as role models for black children and for service to their commnities and country is tremendous. While it is true that on a singular scale affirmative action programs are not fair, that they are not color-blind, and no one in their right mind would argue so, they are desperately needed to correct a past unfairness, an unfairness that went a lot further than keeping a few blacks or women out of medical school. And it is the mora responsibility of this society to help correct that, not by giving always, but by a helping hand. The action of accepting a student for qualities other than his marks is done by colleges in the case of athletes and persons with artistic talents, and no one would question or challenge that. A college has a right to round out its community. Another obstacle is that everyone takes for granted in this charge of reverse discrimination that the white student is automatically better qualified than the minority student, and nothing could be further misleading, a student’s qualifications are based on more than just his accumulative average. It is based on determination, past records, and usefulness to society to name a few. the minority student might have more distinguishing qualities than a white student, and minority doctors are more sensitive and understanding of their ethnic groups in most cases, thus they are more useful as qualified doctors on that level. in a way it is good this particular has arisen, because of mr. Bakke’s personal situation and past medical school record, and the impact of a foul ruling, it is doubtful the Supreme Court would rule in his favor, but one would also have to agree that the California medical school will have to change  its too rigid program.

Now to get away from race and examine other extenuating problems which the Bakke case could illustrate, one is the lack of medical school seats for the qualified students seeking them; it is a situation that helps keep the American medical Association small and highly profitable. For instance, last year about 40,000 persons applied to medical school, around 2/3 were rejected, and a high portion were clearly qualified on many parts. One major problem lies in the lack of medical seats, not in the petty challenge of affirmative action programs, but no one seems to be examining this. 

Photo from John Custodio