The hunt has begun. NIU officials have offered a bounty for the capture of the quarry with hopes that soon the huntsmen will be out hot in the pursuit of…minorities.

The latest step made by President John LaTourette in the university’s affirmative action plan has been to allocate $100,000 in funds to the academic affairs department to serve as part of an incentive program. An incentive restricted to the recruitment of black-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and native-Americans.

It doesn’t seem quite right that a university trying to shake its past “racist” label will promote an equal opportunity employment stance which offers benefits for attracting only a minority of the minorities.

The program initiated by Provost Kendall Baker will reward any academic department with two-thirds of the salary of a minority faculty member hired for a tenure-track position. The money then becomes a permanent addition to the base of the department.

It seems that departments might be more likely to hire minorities not because of a need for a quality faculty member or because the individual is the best qualified, but instead, for the prospects of additional funding for lacking department budgets.

Money which in turn can be used to fund anything from graduate assistanceships and summer research programs to faculty travel and contractual, commodities or equipment needs.

In addition, the money initially used to fund these incentives will come from “cutting corners in other programs.” So the university will end up compromising programs which have already suffered from the lack of funding to provide an incentive for others.

According to Baker the program is being instituted because “It’s a very competitive market place… We are trying to help facilitate the efforts that departments are already making.”

If departments are already truly making efforts to hire minority employees then there should be no need to offer such an incentive.