Tisha Simpson would not have come to Iowa State if she had not been recruited and given the George Washington Carver Scholarship.

“I’m a first-generation college student, and I was trying to find the least expensive way to [get what I wanted],” said Simpson, senior in child and family sciences.

Once she had accepted the academic minority scholarship and begun her freshman year at Iowa State, she faced many challenges. One of her neighbors called her a foreigner and others told her she was imported to meet a quota.

Simpson is from California, which she describes as incredibly diverse. She said she meets many out-of-state minority students who were recruited in by tempting scholarships. These students were recruited to Iowa State to meet the Iowa Board of Regent’s goal of 8.5 percent minorities and add more diversity to a university lacking a diverse in-state minority pool to pull from.

In 2000, the minority population of Iowa was 8.9 percent, and the enrollment of minorities at Iowa State in 2002 was 7.7 percent, not including international students.

Depending on how broad the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action and using racial preferences in admissions is, Simpson said the number of minorities enrolled at Iowa State could dramatically change.

If the decision is broad enough, minority programs and recruiting could face a hard blow.

One program has already been expanded to include non-minorities. Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS) was expanded as a result of a question raised by the Center for Equal Opportunity and the American Civil Rights Institute, said Pete Englin, Dean of Students.

Leon Ashby, sophomore in pre-journalism and mass communication, wasn’t excited about coming to Iowa State when he first agreed to come play football for the university. It was a Division I school, so he jumped on board.

“Nothing really drew me [to Iowa State],” he said.

Ashby said he does not regret his decision to come to Iowa State, because he believes the minority programs offered on campus are exceptional.

Both Ashby and Simpson said they believe one of the best things that could happen as a result of the Michigan ruling is outcomes like that of MANRRS.

“If it’s a multicultural program and if it excludes whites, it offends them,” Ashby said. “They want to learn about us as much as we want to learn about them.”

Simpson said in some cases, like the George Washington Carver Scholarship, adding white students into the mix, would not be true to the tenets of the program.

“What I could see happening is them accepting a few white students to save face,” she said.

If the Michigan decision is confined to admission policies on race, Iowa State will not be affected.

“Race is not a factor at any of the Regents universities,” said Marc Harding, director of admissions. “[That’s] why none of us have been sued, truthfully.”

Englin said he does not believe the quality of ISU’s minority programs will be affected by the Michigan ruling.

“I don’t think the services and programs [offered through Minority Student Affairs] will change, regardless of the decision,” he said. “What may change is the number of students we need to serve.”