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Gates
Resolution
Resolution
of the Board of Directors and Trustees of the Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights Under Law on the Gates Millennium Scholars
Program
November
8, 1999
Whereas
the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has, since
its creation in 1963, sought through the processes of the
rule of law to remedy barriers to equal education stemming
from past discrimination and to vindicate the rights of
minorities to equal educational opportunity; Whereas the
high cost of college and graduate education has been and
is a significant barrier to application and enrollment by
qualified minority students who are in severe financial
need; [1] Whereas disproportionate numbers of minority students
who are qualified and have strong academic potential lack
the economic means to attend and complete higher education;
[2] Whereas minority students are under represented in colleges
and universities, especially in graduate fields of mathematics,
science, engineering, education and library science; [3]
and Whereas in recognition of these and other relevant facts,
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has established the
Gates Millennium Scholars Program to provide $50 million
in scholarship funds annually over a 20-year period to assist
economically disadvantaged African American, Hispanic American,
Native American and Asian American students with academic
and leadership promise in attending and completing undergraduate
education and advanced degrees in math, science, engineering,
education and library science.
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Directors and
Trustees of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under
Law: Expresses strong support for this appropriate and important
action of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation opening
higher education for qualified minority students who would
otherwise be excluded by their limited financial circumstances;
and Applauds the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its
historic and creative funding of the Gates Millennium Scholars
Program aimed at securing the full potential of a generation
of minority students and building a stronger America through
improved educational opportunities.
[1]
/ See Education Watch: The1998 Education Trust State and
National Data Book, Vol. II (Washington, D.C.: The Education
Trust), pp. 4, 5, 12, 20 & Tables 1, 3, 4, 19-21, 35 (low-income
minority students are less likely than white students to
receive a rigorous K-12 education; even if they achieve
at high levels, they are less likely to attend four-year
colleges than even the lower-achieving high-income students,
and are much less likely to complete college); fewer African
American, Latino and Native American graduates took Algebra
II, Geometry, Biology and Chemistry, citing National Center
for Education Statistics, Condition of Education 1997 (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Education 1997), and National Collegiate
Athletic Association, 1977 NCAA Divisions I and II Enrollment
and Persistent Rates Report (Overland Park, Kansas: NCAA,
1997); Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute of the
College Fund/UNCF (1999) Analyses of Integrated Postsecondary
Education Data System (tables showing number and percent
of BachelorŐs, Masters and Doctoral Degrees awarded by race
and academic discipline: 1996). [2] / Id. [3] / Id.
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