Associated Press: Racial Comment in E-Mail Snares Indiana Trustee
An Indiana University trustee is apologizing after he described a Purdue University admissions officer in an e-mail message as “tall, blond, Scandanavian and attractive” and noted that “enthusiastic whites” like her “do better” in recruiting at black high schools, the Associated Press reported today.
The trustee, Tom Reilly, said he sent the message, complete with typos, to his fellow trustees only to make them aware of Purdue’s approach to minority recruiting, which Indiana has identified as an important goal. He wrote that he had had a chance to speak with the Purdue admissions officer at a statewide conference on admissions and student aid.
Most readers of the e-mail message didn’t take it that way. Clarence Boone, a black trustee, said his response was “outrage and indignation” over the “profound racial implications” in the message. Mr. Reilly conceded that he could have recounted his conversation with the Purdue official “in a different way.”
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