(Entry by Maria
Helena de Magalhães Castro and Daniel
Levy)
PROPHE Summary:
A new development in affirmative action in Brazil is the creation of
the first 'university" for black students in Latin America - the
Zumbi dos Palmares University of Citizenship, in a working-class neighborhood
of São Paulo. Founded and run by activists at Afrobras, a local
nonprofit group, the school reserves 50% of its seats to black students
and offers four-year degrees in business administration to 177 students--90
percent of them black. Classes are at night (as is standard in the private
sector overall), and the subsidized tuition of $80 per month is half
that of the least expensive private colleges, the only institutions
accessible to most black students (given the high selectiveness of the
tuition-free public universities).
The Zumbi dos Palmares University is a non-profit private non-university
with plans to enroll up to 10,000 students on campuses throughout São
Paulo City and with some curriculum emphasizing African-Brazilian culture.
School administrators have turned for some help to the historically
black colleges in the United States.
Afrobras started in 1998 with lobbying for scholarships for black students
in private schools. It received financial support from major corporations.
The rest of the university's annual $275,000 budget comes from grants
from other private colleges in São Paulo, getting favorable publicity,
and from student tuition. Yet the university opened amid a nationwide
debate over affirmative action and not all the professors at Zumbi dos
Palmares support the idea of a separate college for black students.
Some fear racial division and others emphasize that blacks should be
represented well at all universities, including the public ones.
Since 2002 several public and private universities have established
quotas of roughly 20 percent for graduates from public high schools.
Some are facing legal challenges and Congress is pondering further legislation.
In addition, the government has launched the ProUni Program, which brings
private universities, both non-profit and for-profit, to grant full
and partial tuition breaks to graduates from the public high schools,
according to each state proportion of Black, Indian, and "Pardos"
(brown) population. Since private universities account for more than
70 percent of Brazil's higher education students, the new policy could
significantly increase non-white and low-income students' access to
higher education.
For the full story (shown with permission) see the Chronicle of
Higher Education, October 20, 2004, "In Brazil, a Different
Approach to Affirmative Action," by Marion Lloyd. http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=bvo5mb8jgeu088efrcaaqptq9260rvg2
PROPHE Observation:
Ethnic and racial representation in higher education is increasingly
debated in many countries. Where the public sector maintains privileged
access for majority populations, economically advantaged minorities
sometimes disproportionately use private institutions (or head abroad).
In Brazil, Affirmative Action for non-whites may have policy ramifications
for both public and private sectors, but the Zumbi dos Palmares is a
pioneer in private sector action. How far the parallel will go to historically
Black private colleges in the USA is a subject of interest.
A major difficulty for racially-based policy in Brazil is the fluidity
of race/color distinction in a widely multiracial population. Surveys
on ethnic-color identities have consistently found that responses to
open questions about color produce a large dispersion of classifications.
Blacks overwhelmingly respond that they are of Brazilian origin (not
African origin).
The fluidity of color classifications, as well as the novelty of
the affirmative action initiative, contributed to initial difficulties
for ProUni. But the program now provides incentives for private institutions,
including tax relief and preferential treatment in federal student financial
aid. ProUni faces opposition by the non-profit sector, on the grounds
that they already offer income-based scholarships to over 20% of their
students and would lose enrollment if they had to follow the strict
racial proportions and scholarship policies defined by the program.
The concern over enrollment is huge as weakened demand stems from insufficiencies
of income and of student aid, and as the private sector faces growing
idle capacity (around 40% in 2003). Idle capacity is a problem suddenly
facing private higher education in much of the world and can contribute
to private-public tension or tensions within the private sector.
For more information see http://www.schwartzman.org.br/simon/causasp.html
and http://www.mec.gov.br/acs/asp/noticias/noticiasId.asp?Id=7330.
