NIU’s CHANCE program is designed to help students who otherwise might not be admitted to NIU. According to the 1989-90 NIU Undergraduate Catalog, the CHANCE program considers an individual’s motivation, talent, leadership and previous school attendance in determining their admission to NIU.

As higher education costs rise and educational requirements increase, fewer and fewer people can get into college. The CHANCE (Complete Help and Assistance Necessary for a College Education) program’s aims are commendable, as the program helps students who want to attend college but cannot gain admission to universities like NIU because of poor academic backgrounds.

Although the CHANCE program is designed to encourage students to continue their education, what happens when some of the students don’t want to be here?

The CHANCE program recruited several students who told the Star they had no previous intention of attending college. These students said without the program’s assistance in finding means to supplement their tuition costs, they might drop out of NIU. These students are financially and physically capable of earning money to pay their own tuition.

Although the program has good intentions by trying to aid in education, many students in the CHANCE program lack basic educational skills. The college level is not the place to teach students how to add and read.

Illiteracy and a lack of basic education are serious problems in this country, but these problems should be dealt with earlier in one’s academic career.

In addition, the CHANCE program is described in the Undergraduate Catalog as “designed to be of particular assistance to members of minority groups, but it is not limited to racial minorities.” However, between 85 and 90 percent of the students admitted through the CHANCE program are minority students.

The CHANCE program’s graduation rate further demonstrates the point that the program takes the wrong approach to educating underprivileged students. Only 17 percent of black students admitted to NIU through the CHANCE program graduated in four years. Almost 30 percent of black students admitted to NIU through regular admissions graduated from NIU in four years.

A program of this type should not be filled primarily with minorities, whether they are black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian or from any other ethnic group. The program should be open to any student meeting its criteria.

The goal of the CHANCE program should not be to pick a certain number of students to fill spaces just because those students are from a racial or ethnic minority. If the program intends to live up to its admission criteria, NIU and the CHANCE program should make sure its students have “educational or vocational ambitions, clearly defined goals and some active planning toward them.”

If a non-minority student meets the CHANCE program’s specifications, the student should be admitted to NIU through the program. Recruiting mainly minority students only furthers an image of an institution trying to erase its racist reputation and a university that disregards the needs of all of its students.