
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991                   TAG: 9103210139
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

MINORITY SCHOLARSHIPS RETAINED/ NEW POLICY EXPECTED IN 6 MONTHS

All colleges may continue to designate scholarships for minority students, at least until the administration completes another policy review and issues new guidelines on the issue, Education Secretary Lamar Alexander said Wednesday.

Making good on a pledge during his recent Senate confirmation hearing, Alexander effectively ordered his department into full retreat on its already softened ruling last December that race-specific scholarships were illegal at taxpayer-supported institutions.

Alexander said it would take about six months to develop a new policy and that, meanwhile, "colleges and universities should keep doing whatever you're doing, and work with us" to develop new guidelines.

"This action is intended to send the strongest possible signal to disadvantaged Americans that a college education is the door to opportunity and that $18 billion in federal student grants and federally guaranteed loans are available this year to help," Alexander said just before testifying to a congressional panel on the subject.

Alexander said The American Council on Education will survey colleges and universities about the features and of financial aid programs that consider race or national origin, and that department officials will work with Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to analyze the requirements of federal law, specifically the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

When new guidelines are established, he said, department officials will work with colleges and universities to help them make any needed adjustments.

Alexander was accompanied by Michael Williams, an assistant education secretary who heads the department's office of civil rights, and who stirred a nationwide outcry when he ruled late last year that publicly financed colleges could not set aside scholarships exclusively for minorities.

The issue arose when Williams warned Fiesta Bowl officials that their $100,000 minority scholarship offer to bowl invitees would violate Title VI of the 1964 law, which prohibits discrimination by institutions receiving federal funds. His argument was that race-specific scholarships were discriminatory against members of races not eligible for the assistance.

by CNB