Why would clarifying it be enough in some cases? Because we ourselves might be misreading the rule. I present Rule #7 Governing Participation from the collegebowl.com website: "7. Every institution eligible for participation in Campus All-Star Challenge may elect to participate in Honda Campus All-Star Challenge <i>or</i> College Bowl. Participation in both programs during the same academic year is not permitted." At first, I read this the same way many of you did -- that CBCI is barring HBCUs from being on the circuit. Then, after thinking about the source of the claim, I came to a different idea. What if, by "College Bowl", they mean the NCT? Certainly, then, the rule isn't as bad as first thought -- if non-HBCUs cannot compete in both tournaments, why should HBCUs be allowed to? So, if this is truly what they mean, and the rule is re-worded to say this, that would -- and probably should -- be sufficient. As I said before, though, all this is a moot point if my key question is answerable with a "no". On the other hand, a resounding "yes" would mean we can move forward with this. The tough part is that we ourselves cannot answer such a question. In a sense, then, this issue is partially out of our hands. The fact that we cannot answer this question on our own explains also why the petition drawn up, no matter how well-intentioned it is, was and perhaps should have been ignored. But enough beating around the bush. The big question, the one which hasn't been answered because as far as I know it hasn't been asked, is: "We may think that the policy of College Bowl Company, Incorporated, is discriminatory towards historically black colleges and universities, but do the historically black colleges and universities feel that they are being discriminated against in any way?" Think about it. Andy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:42 AM EST EST