I’m sure by now you’ve received quite a few responses to the editorial “CHANCE Fails To Achieve,” printed in the Sept. 19 issue of The Northern Star. You couldn’t have possibly underestimated the infuriating impact this article would have among CHANCE and the Afro-American students.

Within the content of the article, you degraded the CHANCE program with accusations of reverse discrimination and made a spectacle of the program’s Afro-American students by singling them out with poor academic achievements. Not only do you need to correct your facts, your opinions leave a hell of a lot to be desired. Perhaps, you need some clarification on the goals and achievements of the CHANCE program.

I decided to do a bit of researching in response to the editorial. So, I paid a visit to NIU’s Institutional Research Department; during which, I found some startling statistics. You indicated in the article that only 17 percent of CHANCE’s Afro-American students graduate in a four year period. But, it’s quite puzzling to me why you fail to mention only 12 percent of the caucasian students admitted in the CHANCE program in 1984 graduated in 1988. In fact, over 70 percent of all white students admitted to NIU in 1984 were unsuccessful in four year graduation. Indeed, the average freshman entering NIU won’t graduate in four years (CHANCE, Afro-American or otherwise).

I’m curious. Did you disregard this information, or did you just forget.

CHANCE has been offended by these, what many consider vicious racist remarks. The program has been insulted by outrageous comments ranging from accusations of being racist toward whites, to bogus remarks about the program recruiting illiterate students. CHANCE is an excessively fair program to all its applicants. It helps the group that needs it most. CHANCE students deserve and want an opportunity at higher education. They have great ambition. And regardless of what your editorial says, they can’t achieve their goals alone. CHANCE helps them to reach their ambitions. I find nothing at all wrong with “an institution trying to erase its racist reputation…” Because, after centuries of being deprived, it’s time minorities got their CHANCE.

Jerome Rutherford

Physics