************************************************************** IFCSS Headquarters News Release No. 5127 April 11 , 1994 ************************************************************** Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (IFCSS) 733 15th Street, N.W., Suite 440, Washington, D.C.20005 Tel. (202)347-0017 Fax: (202)347-0018 Email: ifcss@wam.umd.edu A Settlement agreement has been reached, but Has Justice Been Done? A Statement Regarding Ms. L. Hu's Complaint Against BSU IFCSS In August 1993, Ms. Liqun Hu filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights(OCR) against Ball State University's discriminative admission policy, by which BSU used an unfair converting chart not only for Ms. Hu, but for all applicants who earned their undergraduate grades in the People's Republic of China. A settlement agreement was reached between OCR and BSU, and this marked a significant achievement by Ms. Hu and her legal advisor Mr. Rongwei Cai in their year long painstaking efforts to seek justice within the administrative system. As stated in the agreement, BSU "will discontinue use of its present grade equivalency scale ... to calculate the undergraduate grade point average for foreign students ...," and will follow "the approximate or suggested U.S. grade equivalents cited in print by a) NAFSA: Association international Educators; b) The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers or c) any other available published references generally recognized by the profession." To monitor this agreement, "by August 1, 1994, the University will provide a report to OCR documenting the fact that ... the grade conversion scale is no longer being used," and "by August 1, 1995, the University will provide a report documenting any revisions made since ..." We appreciate the efforts OCR has made to enforce civil rights in American educational institutions. However we are dissatisfied that no concrete steps have been outlined to assure that departments at BSU will not discriminate against Chinese students when evaluating their undergraduate GPAs. We are deeply offended by Item 6 of the agreement, which states, "This settlement agreement shall not ... be construed as an admission by the University of any acts of discrimination ... against any student or applicant ..." Facts are always facts, whether you admit them or not. A saying goes, "Call a spade a spade." Why can't BSU call a wrongdoing a wrongdoing? After all the emotional stress she was subjected to by BSU's first wrongfully denying her admission and then giving numerous outrageous pretences on her denial of admission, Ms. Hu was indignant at their refusal to admit any wrongdoing. She is now seeking judicial proceedings against BSU. In her continuing efforts to seek justice, she has the ultimate support from IFCSS and Chinese students and scholars nationwide. ********************************************************************* * IFCSS Headquarters Office * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * President: Lin Changsheng Vice President: Shi Heping * * Exec. Director: Liu Xiaozhu Chief of Staff: Huang Songyun * *-------------------------------------------------------------------* * PBS-L is IFCSS's news distribution list for individuals. To sign * * on or off from IFCSS E-mail mailing list, please send email to : * * listserv@ifcss.org * * leave the subject line open and put in the mail body: * * (For signing on) sub PBS-L last_name first_name * * (For signing off) unsub PBS-L last_name first_name * * * * For IFCSS Service Program: ftp: ifcss.org:/services * * * * For more information about IFCSS, write to ifcss-info@ifcss.org * *********************************************************************