Recently, the Northeastern Patriot published a report and an opinion article regarding the Ujima Scholars program. Many students affiliated with the program and the African-American Institute took offense to the notion that we called the program’s validity into question. Our stance is that students, regardless of race, should not be admitted to a university if they do not meet the academic standards the rest of the school must adhere to.

Unfortunately, some individuals who disagree with our stance are dismissing us as racists, accusing us of distorting facts, and even trying to get the university to pull our funding.

On Thursday, April 19, a group of students and faculty members assembled in the African-American Institute library to voice their opposition to the Northeastern Patriot’s “Ujima Scholars Bashing.” There were many reasonable and professional individuals present, but also some demagogues who voiced incendiary statements. Jonathan Santos Silva, who identified himself as a Northeastern employee, went so far as to label us “neoconservative white supremacists.” Such a defaming and slanderous statement should have no place in the debate.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and a letter was sent to President Joseph Aoun and other administration officials. However, the letter from the “concerned black student leaders” was rife with inaccuracies and defaming statements.

They took issue with the fact that we labeled incoming Ujima freshman as “academically under-performing black students.” Proponents of the program, as well as the administration, claimed that the scholarship is not race-based, and the “Ujima scholars perform approximately the same as their counterparts.”

However, we were denied any information regarding the success rate of the program, academic statistics of incoming Ujima freshmen or racial demographics of the program to back up any of their claims. Repeated attempts to gather this data were denied every time.

The only logical conclusion based on the information and statements from interviews with Ujima scholars, is that this program is indeed not racially diverse, and that it lowers admissions standards. There is absolutely no reason to believe otherwise.

The Patriot stands by its belief that all students should be held to the same academic admissions standards, regardless of race, background or finances; but perhaps some are missing the bigger picture. There is nothing wrong with these students enrolling in a community college or trade school, rather than forcing them to think Northeastern is their best choice.

The other complaint was that The Patriot did not report the facts. We did report that many Ujima Scholars receive “full tuition” when, in fact, we should have said many Ujima Scholars may potentially receive full tuition when combined with other financial aid assistance packages. However, such an insignificant oversight and mix up in wording should not have caused an overreaction.

Finally, the “concerned black student leaders” had the audacity to compare The Patriot’s coverage to the racist phone messages left on Professor Leonard Brown’s voice mail earlier this year. They claimed we were guilty of “racism and discrimination on campus.” This despicable mischaracterization is a deliberate attempt to silence any opposition, by comparing us to racists and unintelligent fools. We regret that our opposition has taken the low road in this debate.

We welcome all points of view and invite students from any background to contribute. However, ignorant and slanderous statements portraying us as “white supremacists” or discriminators are not legitimate. It should be disappointing to the Northeastern community that racist accusations are routinely voiced against individuals who hold different beliefs and opinions. After all, embracing diversity does not exclusively apply to only a few segments of the student body. We stand firmly behind our content and staff and we look forward to bringing campus conservatism to the forefront of the debate in the years to come.

– Dave Moberg is a junior political science major and is editor in chief of the Northeastern Patriot. Patriot writer Christian Shoemaker, a junior international affairs major also contributed.