Students gather to debate

Culture, age, race and sex are all factors that are used todifferentiate people. Wednesday night, these factors were placed inthe spotlight during Student Senate’s, “AffirmativeAction: Let’s Talk” forum.

Divided into halves, the forum opened with a panel ofadministrators discussing topics from ethnic and cultural diversityto the University of Michigan’s affirmative action decision.The panel’s members included Beth Wilson, director ofInstitutional Access and Equity, S. Leon Bennett, vice president ofLegal Affairs and Governmental Relations, and Ron W. Moss,executive director of Enrollment Services.

Beth Wilson began the evening with background information onaffirmative action and its statutes.

“Affirmative action has two main purposes,” shesaid. “To remedy past and present discrimination and topromote diversity.”

The Civil Rights gained momentum shortly after the Brown vs.Board of Education decision in 1954, which desegregated schools.Even so, segregation was still a problem.

In 1963, after the march on Washington, D.C., Congress passedTitle VI of the Civil Rights Act. This prohibited discrimination atany company or industry that received federal funding.

Title IX was passed soon after, bringing gender equality intothe picture.

Although things seemed to tone down slightly, bumps on the roadto equality still remained prominent.

In 1996 the courts decided in Hopwood vs. UT Law School, thatrace could not be used to add diversity to the university.Recently, the University of Michigan underwent strong scrutiny forusing race during the admissions process to increase diversity.

As a large public school, UM was using a point system onapplications, adding 20 points if a race other than Caucasian wasmarked.

Colleges and universities across the nation are trying to”level the playing field,” Bennett said.

In Michigan’s case, the point system “assisted inthe breakdown of stereotypes,” he said. “It did yieldeducational benefits.”

Ron Moss explained SMU’s process of evaluatingapplications.

He said that many factors, including talent, classroomperformance, GPA and teacher recommendations, are observed whenselecting new members of the SMU community.

“We’re working with multicultural student affairsand trying to increase visiting opportunities,” Mosssaid.

Racial diversity has increased from 10 percent in 1990 to over20 percent today.

“We will continue our efforts,” Moss said.

The second half of the forum was broken into two parts. Part onewas a reading of race and affirmative action quotes. Part two wasthe debate portion of the forum in which anyone affiliated with SMUcould express their opinions in tactful manner.

While the topic of the debate was affirmative action, this didnot limit people. Comments and questions were posed on issues fromcultural, religious and racial diversity to reversediscrimination.

The most debatable question of the evening was, is affirmativeaction racist? The opinions were as diverse as the peopleexpressing them.

Sophomore Michael Waters said, “Affirmative action is aninherent idea. Discrimination is all the same.”

Affirmative action in the application process is strictly numberdriven, one student said during the debate. Admission needs to bebased on merit, not on numbers.

“Merit should not be an issue with affirmativeaction,” Waters said.

Professor of Law Maurice Dyson explained that affirmative actionwas originally enacted at Harvard to protect the white Anglo-Saxonsbecause there were too many Jewish students.

One point that was heavily touched upon was the education ofindividuals on affirmative action and racism in general.

First-year business major Kyle Snyder said, we need to believein the American dream.

“Tiger Woods and Colin Powell started with nothing andended with everything,” he said.

As expected, the bake sale was brought into conversationnumerous times.

Matt Houston expressed his views on the matter with two clearpoints.

“Everyone is a minority,” Houston said. “Weare all not in the majority. The purpose of affirmative actionshould be for students to see how we can all worktogether.”

Throughout the lively debate, senior Brandon Hampton brought adifferent opinion to the forum.

“All students are in pain,” he said. “We needto separate ourselves and break down [racial] barriers.”

To conclude the forum, Jeremy, a member of the YoungConservatives of Texas who did not wish to give his last name, saidthat affirmative action and the bake sale were more aboutentitlement than empowerment.

“I am 100 percent for diversity. [However], affirmativeaction is no way to go about it. We need to start at thebottom.”

Students gather to debate