WASHINGTON – Under pressure from a series of pointed
questions during a forum
for minority journalists, President Bush said Friday he believes
colleges and
universities should not use “legacy” status as a factor
in admissions.
Bush’s remarks came during a question-and-answer session with
a panel of
minority journalists following an address at the Unity 2004
conference. Bush
has not previously taken a public position on the use of
“legacy” status, a
practice in which colleges offer an advantage to applicants whose
parents or
siblings have attended the school.
During a lengthy discussion on University admissions and diversity,
Bush said he
opposes “quota systems” but supports efforts to
increase diversity.
When panel member Roland Martin asked the president whether
colleges should
weigh “legacy” status in admissions, Bush said he did
not think “special
treatment” should be given to anyone.
“So the colleges should get rid of legacy?” asked
Martin, a syndicated
columnist.
“Well, I think so, yes,” Bush replied. “I think
it ought to be based on merit.”
The University’s admissions policy takes into account whether
an applicant has
family members who have attended the school.
Until last year, the admissions policy awarded 20 of 150 points
to
underrepresented applicants. Bush opposed that policy,
characterizing it as
tantamount to a “quota system.”
But the president was not clear on whether he supports the
University’s current
race-conscious admissions policy, which does not use a point
system. While he
objected to suggestions that he opposes affirmative action, Bush
avoided saying
he supports it.
“So you support affirmative action but not quotas,”
asked Martin during the
discussion.
Bush’s response prompted laughter and guffaws from audience
members: “I support
colleges affirmatively taking action to get minorities in their
schools.”
University administrators could not be reached for comment on
Friday.
When asked about a projection by Gen. Tommy Franks – a former
commander who led
the invasion into Afghanistan and Iraq – that American troops would
remain in
Iraq for two to four years, Bush dismissed the question.
“He is trying to get me to put a timetable out there,”
the president said of the
panel member who asked the question. “I’m not going to
do it, see. And when the
timetable is busted they’ll say, ‘I told you.’
” Bush then acknowledged the
panel member’s tenacity, saying he received an
“‘A’ for effort.”
Discussing the Iraq war and terrorism, Bush suggested a more
descriptive name
for the war on terror.
“We actually misnamed the war on terror,” he said.
“It ought to be a struggle
against ideological extremists who do not believe in free society,
who happen
to use terror as a weapon to try to shape the conscience of the
free world.”
Bush’s reception from the crowd of minority journalists was,
at times, less
enthusiastic than it was for Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic
presidential
nominee, who addressed the same convention Thursday to hearty
applause.
“It was a different climate than for Kerry,” said Lori
Cheatham-Thomas, a
broadcast journalism student who attended both speeches. “We
weren’t cheering
(for Bush) . . . it wasn’t warm, but it was
respectful.”
Jack Chang, a reporter for the Contra Costa Times, said some
journalists in the
crowd mocked Bush as he spoke. But Chang said journalists who were
not writing
about the event should not be criticized for expressing their
reactions.
“Journalists have opinions on things . . . that’s how
it is,” he said.
Nicole Shum, a journalism student at the University of California
Los Angeles,
said the reaction to Bush in the overflow room, where she and
several hundred
other journalists watched the address on closed-circuit television,
was
“no-holds-barred laughing.”
“Whether that kind of discredits us as professionals . . . it
might,” Shum said.