A day of action

Rally draws students to the Diag

"We won't take resegregation, we want quality education!"

Dozens of students chanted this slogan as they marched across the Diag as part of yesterday's Student and Youth National Day of Action in defense of affirmative action rally.

"This is a real movement," said Rackham student Jessica Curtin, a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary.

The rally was a way to support "complete equality and complete integration of society," said Curtin, a Michigan Student Assembly representative. She added that Day of Action participants fought for equality in areas including K-12 education, employm

CHRIS CAMPERNEL/Daily Supporters of affirmative action rally for the Students and Youth National Day of Action in defense of

ent and housing.

"That is our goal in defending affirmative action," she said.

Curtin said about 20 other colleges and universities nationwide also participated in yesterday's Day of Action, including the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Virginia.

Many student group leaders on campus used the Day of Action as an opportunity to speak about other ongoing University and international issues, including the Graduate Employees Organization negotiations, sweatshop labor and the U.S. Government sanctions on Iraq.

GEO member Cedric DeLeon said one issue currently being debated in GEO contract negotiations is the hiring of "women and people of color" for at least two terms of teaching and improving training conditions for international graduate student instructors.

"Don't believe for a second that this University is 100 percent pro-affirmative action," he said, urging participants to support a possible GEO strike. "Honoring our picket lines means honoring women and people of color at the University ... defending our picket lines means defending affirmative action."

Speakers at the rally included Detroit Cass Technical High School senior Agnes Aleobua, who plans on attending the University in the fall.

Aleobua said that while it is important for high school students to get involved in and understand affirmative action because it relates to their future, "it needs to be improved upon and built upon.

"It's like a quarter when we deserve a dollar," Aleobua said. "We can't build on zero, but we can build on the quarter."

Aleobua said she was accepted with the help of an affirmative action admissions program.

"If affirmative action is eliminated, many students won't get to go to college," she said.

LSA senior Jon Blavin, who joined the rally because his class was canceled when a fire alarm was set off in Angell Hall, said affirmative action is a complex issue that needs to be addressed at a broader societal level beyond the University.

The University "is a segregated school in a lot of ways," Blavin said. "People segregate themselves, which can be more dangerous than any legislative issue that affects the University," he said.

Blavin explained that in his classes he sees mostly "white suburbanites" like himself, who attended high schools that he said better prepared them for college than an inner-city schools could.

"But not letting inner-city students in is not the answer," Blavin said.

Members of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a public-service oriented sorority in the Black Greek Association, held a banner and signs in support of defending affirmative action.

LSA senior Megan Davis said Delta was originally formed during the women's suffrage movement. They continue to support women's issues and African American issues through activities like "non-biased" affirmative action facts handouts and letter writing campaigns, Davis said.

LSA junior Mwanaisha Sims, a Delta and an MSA rep., added that the Greek system is too often portrayed in negative stories.

"It's not all negative," Sims said. "Our focus is to uplift the black community."

affirmative action yesterday on the Diag.

02-25-99