BAMN to protest Title IX symposium

By Jeannie Baumann

Daily Staff Reporter

Members of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary plan to protest a Title IX symposium sponsored by the University's Journal of Law Reform today.

Curt Levey, director of legal and public affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights, is scheduled to be one of the speakers at the two-day symposium.

CIR is the law firm representing students suing the University because of its use of race as a factor in the admissions process.

"CIR made its name originally by attacking women's rights," said LSA senior Aimee Bingham, a member of BAMN. "They should be afraid to set foot in the city and the community that they're trying to resegregate."

"We have to call out that cynicism, that hypocrisy. We are going to unite the campus to defeat the CIR," BAMN member Lisa Resch said.

Title IX is a federal statute passed in 1972 that prohibits discriminatory practices in higher education on the basis of gender. The law has particularly affected intercollegiate athletics.

But Levey said he is not involved with the admissions lawsuits filed against the University's Law School and College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

"Title IX is a completely separate issue," Levey said. "I have zero involvement with the lawsuit. I'm more ignorant of it than I'd like to be."

Levey is scheduled to speak on a panel at 3:45 p.m. today titled "How should we determine gender equity in sports?"

Although Levey is not working on the lawsuits against the University, he is currently involved in a lawsuit against Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, challenging its use of Title IX.

"The way gender equity is determined needs changing," he said, claiming Miami uses a quota system to determine gender equity.

"Quotas are illegal and a bad idea. It should be based on interest, not numbers," Levey said.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Editor in Chief Shannon Kimball said the symposium is an annual event centered around a different issue every year.

"Our overall purpose is to generate reform proposals and discuss ways to make Title IX work more effectively," Kimball said. "Our purpose is not to promote a particular ideological viewpoint."

Kimball said she welcomes BAMN's participation in the symposium. "I think that they certainly would argue their litigation strategy," she said, adding that there would not be discussion of affirmative action. "This is no way related against the lawsuits of the University."

But Rackham student and BAMN organizer Jessica Curtin said Title IX and affirmative action are very closely linked.

The CIR has "intentionally been using white women in their lawsuits. They're pitting white women against

They're pitting white women against black people and minorities," Curtin said. "All women have to support affirmative action and have to fight sexism and racism together."

Kimball said BAMN members have a valid argument, adding that the symposium has a panel about race and gender equity in sports scheduled for tomorrow.

Other panelists and speakers at the Title IX symposium include University of Iowa Prof. Christine Grant, American Civil Liberties Union Legal Director Mark Rosenbaum and University Athletic Director Tom Goss.