Affirmative Action Legislation
A bill to be introduced into the Colorado General Assembly this
week proposes the elimination of racial preferences in higher
education admissions. public hiring and contracting in city
governments.
Sen. Ed Jones, one of two African American senators in
Colorado’s legislature, believes that affirmative action hurts the
citizens it claims to assist.
“Affirmative action is all about race – that’s racism,” Sen.
Jones said. “I believe it is time to move forward and end this
source of racial tension.”
While Colorado holds race-neutral policies, the Colorado
Commission on Higher Education allows public higher education
intuitions to consider race as one of numerous admissions
factors.
“One of the biggest ironies of affirmative action is the fact
that it is a true insult to minorities,” said Sen. Jones,
R-Colorado Springs. “To assert that a brown or black child cannot
succeed unless the government establishes ‘special criteria’ to
assist them is an outrage.”
James White, the interim assistant director of Black Student
Services, believes that affirmative action is a necessary component
of higher education admissions.
“I think that affirmative action is definitely necessary for the
time being,” White said. “There is no other system in place to
level the playing field for jobs or admission to schools.”
However, he also said the admission of students into higher
education should not be based upon a single factor.
“I don’t believe that it’s right to say that just because this
person is black they are accepted,” White said. “I think diversity
adds to the university, so even if people happen to be a minority,
they should get in on other factors as well.”
Economics professor Steven Shulman supports the initiative and
believes that the new legislation could increase minority success
rates in higher education.
“Racial preference hurts the very people it is meant to help by
putting them in academic environments where they cannot compete,”
Shulman said. “Affirmative action does not create more
opportunities for ethnic minorities to attend college, but it does
increase the presence of non-Asian minorities at more selective
institutions.”
Shulman argues that graduation rates may increase if students
are enrolled in a university equivalent to their educational
ability level.
Jones agreed that minority students who are prepared to attend
state universities can do so without having race factor into
admissions.
“As long as we maintain racial labels, we continue to promote
racial divisions,” Jones said. “The majority of minority students
at our institutions of higher education are qualified to be there,
without the assistance of affirmative action.”
But White maintains that minority labels are important to
universities, and if the university compiles minority statistics
they should also use them as a factor for university
admissions.
“The university is going to track (minorities) by those things
anyway,” White said. “There are a whole slew of classifications
like that once minorities are accepted into Colorado State.”
While the university will not comment on the legislation during
its drafting stage, Provost/Academic Vice President Peter Nicholls
said diversity is an important element at CSU.
“We do value diversity to our student body, diversity to our
faculty body,” Nicholls said. “As we look at students we look at
many, many things that they could bring to the institution, we are
not attaching any points to that, but we take a holistic look at
the students and what that student is going to be able to
contribute.”
Tom Milligan, assistant vice president for University Relations,
said that regardless of the anticipated legislation’s outcome, the
university will maintain a dedication to diversity.
“The institutional commitment to diversity is real and
longstanding,” Milligan said. “Depending on what the laws are, of
course, we’ll comply, but our commitment to diversity won’t change.
It is something that we care about.”
After growing up in Mississippi during the 1940s and 1950s,
Jones said he hopes the bill to eliminate racial preferences will
help America move beyond racism.
“I believe that it is time for our nation to end racial
divisions,” Sen. Jones said. “I believe that affirmative action is
a major roadblock on the road to racial harmony. I defend my
legislation on principle; it reflects Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
dream of every person being judged on ‘the content of their
character’ rather than ‘the color of their skin.'”
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