I agree with Fabio Albertin that affimative action is outdated (Letters, April 22). I also agree that it is being used for "morally inferior" purposes. In my eyes, it is now nothing more than racism turned back against Caucasian people for the sins of many of our race years ago. I don't understand how it is fair to blame and punish white people with good grades by letting students with inferior grades in over them because of the sins of their ancestors. Corruption of blood is specifically forbidden in the Constitution.
The "lazy liberal attitude" that Fabio spoke of is evident in the front cover of The Spectrum that Albertin's article was published in. The title is "Committee confronts lack of minority faculty." I couldn't disagree more. I have been lucky that in the music and political science departments, where I study, I have only had to deal with two people who are not native English speakers, and they are TAs, and speak it well.
A friend of mine is in the math and physics department, and he is lucky if half of his teachers each semester are native English speakers. To make it worse, many of those people haven't even learned it well. One doesn't even speak, he just writes everything on the board. UB is charging a ridiculous tuition and giving students a poor product in their education because they want to make sure that they have a faculty that is "diverse." Instead of making sure that their students are learning and getting what they pay for, they are more concerned with race and country of origin.
No wonder there are such huge curves, no one can understand what they are saying. I know that these are well qualified individuals, but I'm sure there are native English speakers that are equally qualified, and that the students can actually understand. Sounds like affirmative action here is doing nothing but holding students back, not promoting equality.
