State to pay $340,000 to settle class action lawsuit

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A federal judge has given his approval to the settlement of a reverse discrimination lawsuit filed against the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. <br><br>The lawsuit was

Friday, March 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A federal judge has given his approval to the settlement of a reverse discrimination lawsuit filed against the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

The lawsuit was filed in 1998 by University of Tulsa student Matthew Pollard, who said he was denied an academic scholarship by the state even though his test scores on college entrance exams were better than several minority students who received scholarships.

Pollard, who is white, will receive $20,000 under the agreement approved Thursday by U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley. Another$230,000 will be divided among 15 other students who later joined the class-action lawsuit -- $15,333.34 each.

Like Pollard, those students were denied scholarships from the Academic Scholars Program even though they scored higher than some minority students who received the financial award.

The settlement amount is about half of what they would have received if they had been awarded five-year scholarships under the ASP program.

In addition, the state has agreed to pay Pollard's attorneys, Edward White of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma City University la wprofessor Andrew Spiropoulos, $99,990 in legal fees.

"We believe the settlement is fair," White said.

The program awarded scholarships to the top one-half percent of Oklahoma students from each racial and gender group. The scholarships were based on test scores from college entrance exams.

Pollard alleged the program's rules were unconstitutional and discriminated based on race. The state Legislature revised the scholarship program after the lawsuit was filed. The new program eliminates scholarships that gave a slim edge to gifted Hispanic, American Indian and black students, who sometimes scored slightly lower than white students on college entrance exams.

Gone are the categories of National Hispanic Scholar for Latinos and National Achievement Scholar for black students. A new category that will receive its first trial run in the fall is "Institutional Nominee." "If the schools go by the new criteria, I believe it can work," White said.