White kids have been banned from applying to a summer accounting program for high school kids that is sponsored by a number of prominent New York institutions.
The Moynihan Scholarship Fund and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, as well as nine major New York colleges, including five public universities, are sponsoring the program “Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession.” The seminar aims to expose 250 “promising underrepresented high school students” to the accounting profession.
According to Campus Reform:
“In addition to virtual sessions about forensic accounting, interviewing skills, public speaking, networking, and an ‘accounting profession overview’ featuring a panel discussion with experts in the profession.
Nine institutions of higher education in New York — including Ithaca College, Medgar Evers College, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. John’s University, Siena College, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Oswego, the University at Buffalo, and Westchester Community College — are listed as hosts for the program, which is free of charge for students. . .
Five of the nine schools participating in the program — including Medgar Evers College, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Oswego, the University at Buffalo, and Westchester Community College — are public universities funded by New York state.”
However, on the program’s application form, candidates must select a “race” or “ethnicity” choice with which they identify. On the application form, there are options for Hispanic, Black, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and Native American. “White,” on the other hand, isn’t even a possibility.
A father whose son, a high school student, is interested in business, spoke anonymously to Campus Reform about his “frustration” with the program’s racial discrimination. “My child can’t apply because he’s white,” the father expressed with anger.
Campus Reform contacted the colleges that are sponsoring the accounting program, and received a response from SUNY Oswego’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Scott Furlong, who agreed that the program is potentially unfair.
“SUNY Oswego supports the program and sees it as a valuable service to the profession, but we strongly believe that the COAP program would benefit all disadvantaged students,” Furlong said. SUNY Oswego would prefer a more inclusive perspective regarding membership in COAP and the NYSSCPA policy, “while we do not participate in recruiting student participants in COAP or in the setting of policy for student membership, SUNY Oswego would prefer a more inclusive perspective regarding membership in COAP and the NYSSCPA policy.”
While the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants is in charge of establishing policies that only allow “students of color” to apply, Furlong added that the program’s exclusion of white students “merits much future discussion in order for SUNY Oswego to reassess our involvement and reconsider our sponsorship.”
