Resentment from students who view minority scholarships as unfair may be alienating minority students from the campus community, a recent focus group determined.

The Office of Minority Student Affairs sent out a survey to 72 randomly selected individuals from Iowa State’s minority database on Jan. 28. While minority student affairs officials hoped 36 students questioned would respond, only 16 students provided feedback.

Leonard Perry, director of the Office of Minority Student Affairs, said although the focus group received answers from only 16 of the original 72 people questioned, it was never meant to be a scientific survey, but rather an indication of how certain students feel.

“The people who took part in these focus groups are self-driven participants, students who see themselves as change agents,” Perry said. “We feel this is a good indication of the real campus climate.”

The first step toward helping students is understanding the challenges they face, he said.

“We are here for the students, so the feedback we receive from these groups is very important,” Perry said.

According to feedback from the questionnaire, some minority students feel alienated by the white majority on campus.

Perry said because of minority scholarships, students can feel out of place.

“There is some resentment on campus toward students who receive minority scholarships,” he said. “However, diversity helps absolutely everyone, and besides, these scholarships are always justified — the students who receive them simply have got it going on academically.”

Grif Kolberg, program assistant for minority student affairs, said some are under the impression scholarships given to minorities help create a divide between those who have received the scholarships and those who haven’t.

“Some white students on this campus see minority scholarships as a ‘have’ and ‘have-not’ situation,” Kolberg said.

“They think that the scholarship money is coming out of their pocket — they don’t understand how diversity will help them in the future.”

Jane Ly, freshman in pre-architecture, received a minority scholarship. She said she feels minority scholarships are justified.

“Like almost any scholarship, mine is economically and academically based. Personally I feel honored — I mean, as a student, you should take advantage of anything you can get,” Ly said.

Students of all backgrounds are aided by minority scholarships, even if they don’t realize it until they have graduated and get out into the world, Kolberg said.

While the issue of minority scholarships is one reason some students feel alienated, the focus of the study was to explore ways to learn more about the general campus climate facing minority students.

“The students we polled feel that there are issues on this campus that could be improved, areas like leadership, willingness to state opinions, and learning about other people,” said Billy Maldonado, administrative assistant for minority student affairs and graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies.

The officials said, overall, they are pleased with the replies of the survey participants.

“What we don’t want to have happen is for the colored students or the white kids on campus to see this as purely rhetoric — these programs have an important place,” Perry said.

This correction appeared in the Feb. 25 2004 edition:

Due to reporting errors, the Feb. 24 article “Minority students may feel alienated due to scholarships” contained several errors. The survey distributed by the Office of Minority Student Affairs made no reference to minority scholarships, then erroneously connected the issue of minority scholarships to the survey conducted by the Office of Minority Student Affairs. There were no such inquiries or findings in the survey. The Daily regrets these errors.