An affirmation of action

Rally energizes supporters on Diag

Music, chanting and more than 150 students and faculty members filled the Diag in the bitter cold yesterday in support of affirmative action.

Academics for Affirmative Action and Social Justice, a new group on campus comprised of University graduate students and faculty members, organized the rally and march that featured students, faculty speakers and performers.

AAASJ co-founder Nadia Kim said it was time for graduate students and faculty members to break their silence and speak out on the importance of affirmative action.

"There was a need for not only undergraduate students but for graduate students, faculty and staff who study issues such as social justice to really have a voice," said Kim, a Rackham first-year student. "Basically, we wanted to unleash all that we

MARGARET MYERS/Daily An affirmative action supporter pickets yesterday in the Diag as part of a rally organized by Academics for Affirmative Action and Social Justice.

know about inequality."

Law Prof. Suellyn Scarnecchia, who spoke at the rally, urged the audience not to let the University go back to segregation in higher education.

"We need to find the courage to speak out and be heard and be counted among the supporters of affirmative action," Scarnecchi said. "Because we want to educate, not segregate."

Scarnecchia said that as a professor at the Law School, her job is to prepare professionals to lead, hold power and settle disputes in a multicultural society.

"The Law School community needs to reflect the real world. In fact, we need to be the real world inside the Law School to do our job effectively," Scarnecchia said. "We can't teach lawyers to go out and do justice in a law school that is forced to be racially segregated."

LSA sophomore Sarah Douglas said she was impressed by the amount of people who came to the Diag to support affirmative action.

"I think it's great that so many students and faculty members came out to support such an important issue," Douglas said. "I think their point is really clear and the audience is very receptive."

AAASJ co-founder Tom Guglielmo said yesterday's rally was intended to make it crystal clear that University students and faculty members support affirmative action.

"We felt there was a need for those schooled in theses issues to get involved," said Guglielmo, a Rackham second-year student.

Sociology Prof. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva said he joined AAASJ because he felt it was important as a professor of color to speak up.

"The main goal is to defend affirmative action," Bonilla-Silva said. "Undergraduate students have been in the forefront, and we wanted to be apart of that."

LSA sophomore Sylvia Robinson, who participated in the rally, said that despite the advances that minorities have made, affirmative action is still a necessary policy.

"I feel until institutional racism in lower education is abolished, we need affirmative action," Robinson said.

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