WARREN ZINN/Daily A protester during the Ku Klux Klan rally in May attempts to avoid tear gas.

Affirmative action vital to 'U' welfare

Program of admission standards only aids minority students

Imagine a university where everyone looks exactly alike. No people of color - a homogenous body of students who have little to exchange about different cultures through peer contact. If anti-affirmative action advocates have their way, this is precisely what the University of Michigan could become.

Last fall, the University found itself under siege by a right-wing attempt to resegregate higher education. The Center for Individual Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, filed two lawsuits against the University for employing racially discriminatory admissions practices. The CIR claims that both the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and the Law School have accepted under-qualified minorities over white students.

The nation is now at a critical point in history as the 20th century draws to a close. Will it abandon substantial gains in race relations stemming from the civil rights movement or will it defend social policies like affirmative action that have allowed minorities and women to attain important positions in higher education, government and corporate America?

Unfortunately, in 1998, the former ideology is starting to prevail. Although prestigious public universities in the states of Michigan, California and Texas have crafted their student bodies to reflect the melting pot we call America, their efforts are now being trampled by conservatives who believe blindly that racism and inequality do not exist. Under the guise of ideas such as meritocracy and words like "equal opportunity" and "racial preferences," state Sen. David Jaye (R-Macomb) and state Rep. Deborah Whyman (R-Canton) are spearheading an effort to make Michigan into the Mississippi of the early 1960s, where segregation was the norm and opportunity was scarce for minorities.

FILE PHOTO When it comes to affirmative action debates and the lawsuits before the University, students become heated in their views. This sign "Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary" is just one example of the numerous protests that took place on the University campus this past year on the topic.

Jaye, who recently won a seat in the state Senate on a single-issue campaign - eliminating affirmative action - denounced the University for achieving racial diversity by means of affirmative action and helped organize the two lawsuits against the University. Jaye believes that the University should not take into account the color of one's skin, but rather it should put emphasis on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, which studies have shown to be biased against women and minorities, and a poor predictor of success in college. Jaye wants the University to ignore 300 years of slavery, decades of segregation under Jim Crow, under-funded schools for poor and minority communities and discrimination in the workplace through the "good old boys network." He says that the University violates the U.S. Constitution when it adds points to the application of minority students. But in most cases, don't minorities start out will far fewer points than white males like Sen. Jaye? Has he stopped to think about how minorities feel when he tells them that they don't belong at the University of Michigan, that they only got in under the guise of "racial preferences?" Probably not.

Whyman is another white, middle-aged legislator who is hoping to shut out minorities from higher education. Over the past six months, Whyman has collected signatures to put an initiative on the ballot in November that, if passed, would end affirmative action in Michigan and at the University. University students and faculty must vote against Whyman's initiative and defend the University's commitment to diversity.

Just as when the University accepted its first black student in 1868 when the practice was uncommon, administrators are still at the forefront of promoting student heterogeneity, defending the Michigan Mandate - a policy initiated by former University President James Duderstadt that has doubled minority representation since the late 1980s. In his first full year as University president, Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar, has become a national spokesperson for affirmative action. He has exhibited diligence, integrity and intelligence, declining the use of pro bono counsel for the two lawsuits and keeping the student body informed on the University's ideology.

While many cynics believe that the era of student activism is pushing up daisies, University students are launching the same type of movements that occurred in the '60s and '70s. In late February, more than 500 students boycotted classes and midterms to participate in the first National Day of Action. Eighteen student groups sponsored the day's events, including the

09-08-98