Newsbriefs

National Domestic Violence Hotline to Start

A National Domestic Violence Hotline is only months away, now that federal money for the hotline was awarded to the Texas Council on Family Violence. The $1 million grant to establish a national hotline was part of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act which provides $4.5 million for a national domestic violence hotline over five years.

The Texas Council plans to launch the toll-free Hotline in February 1996, with 10 hotline advocates including a Spanish speaker on-site, as well as access to translation in 140 languages. A telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) will also be available.

The Hotline must come up with a portion of its own money in order to receive the government grant. To donate, or for more information, write to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 8701 North MoPac Expressway #450, Austin, TX 78759.

SAT Gender Bias at U.C.-Berkeley

Even before the University of California regents decided in July to eliminate affirmative action in admissions, a study found that the standard admissions procedure at UC-Berkeley may be biased against women.

The study revealed that the university’s reliance on the Scholastic Assessment Test and three Achievement Tests in admitting students reduces the number of women in Berkeley’s freshman class by over five percent. Women often have lower scores on standardized tests than men, even though women receive higher college grades than men in identical majors. Numerous studies have shown that standardized tests are biased against women and minorities.

All Male College Case Goes to Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on whether the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), a public college, can bar women from admission. Earlier this year, a lower court had ruled that VMI could remain all-male if it set up a separate women’s leadership program at another college. A Supreme Court ruling in the VMI case also may resolve the issue of whether women must be admitted to the Citadel, the only other all-male public college in the country.

In addition, Nancy Mellette is taking the place of Shannon Faulkner in a federal lawsuit against the Citadel. Mellette’s case, to decide whether a separate women’s program at Converse College is comparable to the Citadel’s Corps of Cadets, will be heard in November in federal district court. The Citadel has received 113 letters of inquiry from women but has stopped sending applications to women.