The National Women's Rights Organizing Coalition had its first successful campus march for affirmative action of the school year yesterday.
More than 30 participants, including students and NWROC members from Ann Arbor and Detroit, gathered on the Diag at noon before going on an hourlong march throughout campus.
NWROC member Jessica Curtin, an LSA senior who partially led the rally and march, said members were pleased with the turnout.
NWROC members said the rally was held to defend affirmative action and to protest California's Proposition 209, which would eliminate affirmative action in California.
Curtin said attacks on affirmative action have contributed to further racism and sexism on campus.
"There's been an increase in racist and sexist attacks on campus," Curtin said. "There's a movement in a reactionary direction."
Many students who are non-NWROC members also held protest signs and marched.
"I'm really concerned with the apathy that permeates the campus," said Education senior Lori Kasle. "I feel that people who say affirmative action is not necessary are saying that racism doesn't exist anymore and that's not true."
Protesters first marched in Mason Hall, chanting for affirmative action and beckoning other students to join in, then through the Modern Languages Building where they occasionally opened auditorium doors to attract the attentions of students in class.
The group then marched into East Quad, where they stood outside the door of the office of philosophy Prof. Carl Cohen, but Cohen was not in his office.
NWROC members called Cohen a "main proponent of anti-affirmative action" legislation.
"I think it gives students a way to say we don't accept what he's saying," said RC first-year student Neftara Clark.
Cohen said last night that he was unaware of the protest and did not want to comment. He said he is not an opponent of affirmative action but opposes "racially preferential programs."
After leaving East Quad, the protestors took the march to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Financial Aid where they chanted at the front desks.
Curtin said if Proposition 209 is voted into law, NWROC plans to hold an emergency rally on the Diag tomorrow.
JOHN KRAFT/Daily
NWROC member and LSA senior Jessica Curtin leads a march through campus to defend affirmative action. California residents will vote today on Proposition 209, which proposes to eliminate affirmative action in the state.