A College Experiment

Clarkdale College is a very progressive and liberal university, historically women's-only, and the student body is still predominantly rich, white and female. The administration discussed how to address the persistence of racial privilege and economic elitism through affirmative action, but decided instead to try a bold new experiment.

Affirmative action would provide superficial change, a different shade of the same kind of students, just as worthy as the whites they would replace but perceived as having benefited from special treatment. If special treatment not based on merit is the criticism they would face, the administrators reasoned, we might as well attract some truly needy people.

It just so happened that the college is located in the same county as a big prison, and local leaders knew many young men released from there were poorly educated and not well equipped to succeed in life on the outside. The state government was willing to contribute funds to try and rehabilitate some of the most bitter and maladjusted.

The college saw an opportunity and insisted they would only take black men, since there were so many white women on campus to diversify. Martha McPherson, the Dean of the School, fought back against suggestions the experiment be limited to only a handful, arguing that would make the black men only 'token' members of the community. She thought there should be enough to change the culture of the place, to make it their own, so no white woman could avoid experiencing the new campus. So Clarkdale would accept more than a hundred, mostly young men but also middle-aged men who had been behind bars for decades and so hadn't enjoyed liberty in a long time.