2,000 march on Day of Action

CARRIE MCGEE/Daily

LSA senior Aimee Bingham with son Brandon Pope and LSA sophomore Ashley Bray take part in National Day of Action for Affirmative Action yesterday on the Diag.

By Rachel Green

Daily Staff Reporter

With two lawsuits challenging the University's use of race in admissions ready to go to trial early next year, more than 2,000 students and other activists fighting for the preservation of affirmative action crowded the Diag yesterday.

Jessica Curtin, member of Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary, who helped to organize the event, said this year's National Day of Action for Affirmative Action is stronger than past years because students from across the state came to the University.

About 20 busloads of students from Cass Tech and Mackenzie high schools in Detroit, Ann Arbor Huron High School and Michigan State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan universities and the University's Flint campus turned out for the rally.

"The national mobilization to Ann Arbor is meant to set the tone for the affirmative action trials," Curtin said.

In 1997, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights, representing white applicants who were denied admission to the University's Law School and College of Literature, Science and the Arts, filed two lawsuits charging they were unfairly evaluated because of the use of race in the admissions process.

The Law School case is set to begin in January and although a start date for the LSA case has not been set, it is expected to commence early next year.

The 20-minute march through the Diag was led by Cass Tech's marching band.

As the group made their way back to the Diag, LSA freshman Adam Dancy, held a sign that read "Affirmative Action Poisons Education."

"Admissions should be based on merit not on color of skin," Dancy said.

When the high school students spotted his sign, they chased Dancy from the West Hall arch into the Diag and tore his sign.

Cass Tech senior Erica Bell attended the rally with more than 100 students from her high school.

When several students from the University's BAMN chapter came to her school this year to explain the issues surrounding affirmative action and the admissions lawsuits, Bell said the issue became more significant to her.

"We didn't ever understand what affirmative action was and (BAMN) taught it to us," Bell said. Schools "get government money for the amount of minority students they have, and most important, everybody deserves the right to education whether they're black, white, Hispanic, Asian or rich or poor."

Andy Lee, a leader of Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience, traveled to Ann Arbor with 120 fellow Michigan State students to show his support for affirmative action.

Lee said he believes the lawsuits against the University are monumental.

"I think the lawsuit is going to go all the way to the Supreme Court," he said. "That decision will effect how affirmative action is viewed across the country."

University students who passed the rally on their way to classes, had vastly differing reviews about the rally's presence and about affirmative action in general.

LSA senior Samantha Menke who watched the rally on her way to class said she is glad to see the support of affirmative action by the University community.

"It's a really cool part of our University that people are able to do this all the time and that the University supports it."

LSA junior John Robison said he favors affirmative action in education, but not in the working world.

"After school, everyone's basically on an equal playing field."

Some students were more vocal about their feelings against affirmative action.

LSA freshman Ricky DeNardis said he did not agree with the Michigan Student Assembly's sponsorship of the rally and Affirmative Action 102, a 10-day series intended to inform students of the issues surrounding affirmative action.

"I think this rally is a disgusting waste of MSA money," he said. "It shows you how liberal MSA is when they should be bi-partisan."

Other students simply found the rally to be a disturbance to their classes held in Mason Hall during the rally.

LSA junior Claire Cameron had an Italian class in Mason Hall during the rally.

"This was disruptive. The (Cass Tech) band was disruptive," she said. "I don't think they should be able to have things like this in the Diag, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 to 2."