By Christopher Klaver
CIO
Posted: August 2, 2013 2:30 PM

So, were people with clipboards wandering the Hillsdale College campus more than a decade ago? And if they were, what or who were they counting? And from where did they come?

The questions stem from a controversial comment Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn made earlier this week that officials from the Department of Education were on campus in 2000 to count “dark ones” among the student body.

Mr. Arnn, through a spokesperson, apologized for his terminology in referring to minority students, but did not retract his assertion that state officials are perpetuating racial divides by tracking the diversity of students in higher education.

“Racial polarization is increasing rather than decreasing in our nation today, and Dr. Arnn believes that the solution to this destructive trend is a return to the first principles of the nation, the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and to the idea of a colorblind Constitution based on those principles,” a statement issued by the college on his behalf said.

If people were wandering Hillsdale with clipboards, maybe Mr. Arnn should be cut some slack for thinking they were from the state department. But that’s the question: Did the state have anyone actually counting anything on campus?

Mr. Arnn’s testimony this week dealt with the Common Core State Standards, adopted by the State Board of Education but now being reconsidered by the Legislature, saying they were a way to force school districts to adopt liberal philosophies and to place them more under the control of the state and federal government.

He said he did not trust the state because it had cited the college for not tracking its minority registration (the college does not keep such statistics) and claimed it had sent officials out to make that count for the college.

Except that the state is saying it didn’t conduct such a study.

State officials would not rule out such a visit, but only because no one remembered back 13 years to be able to definitively deny it.

The state normally, though, collects that data only through reports submitted by the colleges and universities, an official said. And the only use for that data state officials could determine was for federal student loans, which, under Title IX, require a university show it is not discriminating. Hillsdale’s failure to collect data on students’ race ran afoul of that requirement in the late 1970s, but courts upheld its right to not collect the data (they said the federal government could, however, refuse to grant to students because the data was not available). The college has its own scholarship system and does not participate in state and federal financial aid programs.

As Mr. Arnn has not been available for comment since his committee testimony this week, even to the department, it remains unclear whence the clipboards, if there were any, came.

THURSDAY ADDENDUM: No matter the desires of either party, the next set of state employee contracts will not last more than three years. Sources pointed Gongwer News Service to Chapter 6 of the Civil Service rules, which prohibits contracts longer than three years, as well as any provisions that simply roll over from a prior contract without a new agreement.