TOBE EQUALAn open letter to President Bush c on affirmative actionBYHUGHPRICEDecember 3, 2002President George W. BushThe White HouseWashington,Dear President Bush:Monday, the U.S. SupremeCourt announced it would reviewtwo University of Michigan caseschallenging the constitutionalityof institutions of higher learningincluding race as one amongmany factors in admissions deci-Sions.I write to implore vou to standwith those of us who ferventlybelieve in opportunity and inclu-sion. More specifically, | urge youto instruct the JusticeDepartment and the SolicitorGeneral to stand by the US.Supreme Court's Bakke decision,in which the Court ruled it per-missible under the Constitutionfor colleges and universities toconsider race as one among manyfactors, Not just to combat dis-crimination, but as a way to pro-mote diversity. The admissionsprocedures crafted by theUniversity of Michigan and itslaw school follow that require-ment.The University of Michigandoes not use quotas or set-asides,nor does it admit applicants whoaren Tt qualified and can Tt handlethe academic work there. Indeed,it Ts noteworthy that the lawschool admits a smaller percent-age of Black applicants than theproportion of Blacks in the US.population, and rejects a higherpercentage of African Americanapplicants than white applicants.Bakke has been the law of theland for a quarter century. It hasserved America well in expand-ing opportunity and will continueto do so in the years ahead.Affirmative action is both a phi-losophy of inclusion and a set oftools for accomplishing thatobjective.It Ts important to remind our-selves that the philosophical andconstitutional debate over it does-n Tt exist at colleges and universi-ties with roughly as many open-ings as they have applicants.Instead, the debate is about whathappens at highly selective insti-tutions that have many morequalified applicants than open-ings, and thus, a competitiveadmissions process.The University of Californiaat Berkeley and UCLA, and theUniversity of Texas at Austin, theflagship campuses of theirrespective states, have sufferedsharp reductions in the enroll-ment of minorities because raceand ethnicity can no longer beconsidered in admissions deci-sions. Minority applicants, thosestudent bodies at large, the insti-tutions themselves, the stateswhere they are located and socie-ty at large are all losers as a resultof diminished inclusion anddiversity on those campuses.America Ts evolving and inex-orable demographic change pro-vides all the moral and economicrationale we need to view inclu-sion as a compelling public inter-est; and admissions policies likethose at the University ofMichigan and its law school haveclearly contributed to advancingthe preparation and productivityof minorities. The proof ofimpact is found in the dramatical-ly changed ethnic composition ofcollege campuses and corporateworkplaces.In 1961, 134,000 Black studentsattended predominantly whitecolleges and universities aroundthe country. Since then there Tsbeen an almost ten-fold increase,to 1.2 million, in the number ofAfrican American undergradu-ates at such schools.- Similarly,America Ts white-collar labor mar-ket is vastly more integrated "today than it was four decadesThese education and employ-ment gains help explain themarked growth in the Black mid-dle class "an expansion over-whelmingly fueled by the off-spring of working class and low-income families. Their rise stemsfrom the potent combination oftheir own individual drive forachievement and the determina-tion of universities and employ-ers to tap this great pool of talentutilizing admissions policies likethose at the University ofMichigan.Affirmative action is neededbecause America Ts economy (andthe maintenance of SocialSecurity, Medicare and private-pension benefits of aging babyboomers) will increasingly beborne by minority workers,entrepreneurs, taxpayers andcustomers; and because its civiclife will depend increasingly on aliterate and engaged populace ofcolor who are well equipped toexercise the ballot and meet theobligations of citizenship.The better educated thesefuture citizens are, t e morerobust our economy, the moreharmonious our society and themore secure the entire popula-tion will be: This is the essence ofa compelling public interest.Universities that practice con- |stitutionally permissible forms ofaffirmative action adhere to noneof the practices " like quotas,set-asides and acceptance of theunqualified " that opponents ofaffirmative action find objection-able. That is why the principlesgoverning admissions policieslike those at Michigan deserveyour enthusiastic support andshould be upheld by the US.Supreme Court. -Now more than ever, strength-ening America Ts commitment toinclusion will determine whetherit will continue to maintain themost robustly diverse, yet cohe-sive democracy in the history ofhumankind. That mission can Ttbe left entirely to chance.Common sense dictates that wekeep the doors of higher educa-tion wide open for promisingyoung African Americans andLatino Americans.Thank you, Mr. President, foryour consideration.Best wishes,HBPHugh B. Price is president of theNational Urban League and canbe reached at 120 Wall Street, NewYork, NY 10005, voice, (212) 558-5300 or fax, (212) 344-5332.WITNESS: FOR JUSTICERemembering World AIDSBYBERNICEPOWELLJACKSONEvery vear December 1 is setaside as World AIDS Day, a day toremember the millions who areliving with HIV and AIDS as wellas those who have died from thisdisease and to recommit our-selves to ending the HIV/AIDSpandemic. It Ts. important toremember that there are stillAmericans becoming infectedwith this disease every day andthat there are 14,000 new infec-tions every day worldwide.HIV AIDS knows no borders andrespects no boundaries. It is adisease of all races, all classes,both sexes, all nationalities andsexual orientations.A decade ago, when the deathsfrom HIV were sweeping acrossthis nation, HIV was often in theheadlines and on telbvision , andradio. Today, because of the suc-cess of drugs which are availableto many Americans, that deathrate in the U.S. has dropped dra-matically and AIDS is not in theforefront of our minds. Instead,our national attention is turnedto terrorism and security issues.But Danny Glover, the actorand a spokesman for the UnitedNations, reminds us that formany around the world AIDS istheir primary national securitythreat. Indeed, U.N. SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan has said thatwhile 200,000 Africans died inwars in 2000, 2 million Africansdied of AIDS that year. In Africa,in 2000 there were 7,000 AIDSfunerals every day "that Ts morethan twice the number of peoplewho died on 9/11. Those deathswere two-thirds of the worldwidedeaths from AIDS that year,meaning that, Africa is bearingthe burden of this disease. Jnfact, 95% of the cases ofHIV/AIDS are in the world Tspoorest countries and in severalsouthern African nations, one outof every five people is infected. InSouth Africa alone, 25% of preg-nant women have the disease.The world has more than 12 mil-lion AIDS orphans, 95% of whomlive in Africa.The theme for this year TsWorld AIDS Day was oLive andLet Live, � with a focus on all peo-ple with HIV/AIDS living in dig-nity. Yet, we know that is not thecase. Around the world, includ-ing in the US., people withHIV/AIDS suffer greatly frombeing stigmatized.. They faceirrational fears and prejudice. Inmany cases, the stigma can be asburdensome as the disease itselfand some people are denied eventhe basic rights of food and shel-ter because of it.The question for us.in the U.S.is how to end the stigma "how dowe open our homes, our schools,our workplaces, our places ofworship to those who haveHIV/AIDS. The question is howwe talk about it and do the pre-vention work.But the question for us in theU.S. is also how can we makemore available the funds for theworld Ts poorest to have access tothe drugs which can keep themalive. Although some progresshas been made over the past twoyears, the fact is that millions ofAfricans still cannot afford thelife-saving drugs. We are stillrequiring many African nationsto repay their debts "the totaldebt repayment by Africa is $14billion per year, while the cost forDayAIDS drugs for all Africans wouldcome to $10 billion.All the progress which Africahas made since independence isbeing lost because of AIDS. Awhole generation "includingteachers and doctors and engi-neers and farmers "is beingwiped out and now a second gen-eration is being threatened by it.The fact of the matter is thatHIV/AIDS is not just a securitythreat for Africa, but it is a secu-rity threat for the whole world.It Ts a security threat that we cando something about "both hereand abroad. Bernice PowellJackson is Executive Director ofthe United Church of ChristCommission for Racial Justice andcan be reached at 700 ProspectAvenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-110, voice, (216) 736-2168 or fax,(216) 736-2171.SPECIAL COMMENTARYPoor| BY"GEORGEE.CURRYSome states have adopted per-centage plans in recent years "where a certain percentage ofhigh school students are auto-matically accepted into the stateuniversities--as a substitute foraffirmative action. However, inevery instance, the states aredoing the same or worse inbringing about campus diversitythan they were prior to the elim-ination of affirmative action.That's the conclusion ofdetailed 115-page draft report bythe U.S. Commission on CivilRights titled oBeyond PercentagePlans: The Challenge of EqualOpportunity in HigherEducation. �After examining percentageplans in California, Texas andFlorida, the commissionersimmediately went to the heart ofthe issue: oCan percentage plansachieve the goal of equal educa-tion opportunity? Based on theanalysis performed here, theanswer unfortunately is no. �substitute for affirmative actionThey conclude, oPercentageplans alone do not improve diver-sity by reaching underrepresent-ed minority groups and will onlyhave their desired effect if affir-mative action and other supple-mental recruitment, admissions,and academic support programsremain in place. �Percentage plans were adopt-ed after affirmative action pro-grams had been eliminated atthe state level. In California, vot-ers amended the state constitu-tion in 1996 by _ passingProposition 209.That same year, the FifthCircuit Court of Appeals "whichhas jurisdiction over Texas,Louisiana and Mississippi "ruled in Hopwood v. State ofTexas that race or ethnicitycould not be used as an admis-sions criterion.In 1999, Florida Gov. Jeb Bushsigned Executive Order 99-281banning the use of race or eth-nicity in university admissions.California Ts Board of Regentsadopted a plan guaranteeingadmission in the University ofCalifornia system to the top 4percent of students in Californiahigh schools, provided they meetall other admission solsments.Texas T percentage plans guar-antees high school graduates inthe top 10 percent of their classadmission to the public collegeor university of their choice.And Florida assures admis:sion to one of its universities to20 percent of graduating seniors. But like California, it did notmatch Texas T provision that thestudent could select any stateuniversity of his or her choos-ing.Asian-Americans were theonly underrepresented groupthat made gains in California. oThe preponderance of AsianPacific Americans and whites inthe UC system and its campuseshide, however, the subtle dwin-dling in the enrolled proportionsof Hispanic, black and NativeAmericans "the _ "_underrepre-sented minority groups, � thestaff report found. oThe UC sys-tem had 16 percent Hispanics in1995-96, but has had only 12 to 14percent thereafter. It had 4 per-cent blacks in 1995-96, but hasoften had only 3 percent sincethen. It had 1.1 percent NativeAmericans in 1995-96, but only0.5 to 1.0 percent in the ensuingschool years. �The problem was even moreacute at the Berkeley and LosAngeles flagship campuses.While people of color had beenrepresented in the 26 to 30 per-cent range, that percentage laterslid to 16 and 17 percent.A similar problem wasencountered by the state ofTexas T flagship university. oOutlawing race-consciousaffirmative action programs inhigher education in Texas had anegative impact on minorityenrollment at the University ofTexas-Austin, � the report stated. oBetween 1996, the year that thecourts handed down theHopwood decision, and 1997,minority enrollment at UT-Austin declined for both blacksand Hispanics. �Of the three states studied,Florida did perhaps the best inmaintaining the level of Blacksenrolled in college. Even thoseresults were mixed. At FloridaState University, for example, thepercentage of African-Americans increased from 10.2percent in the 1999-2000 schoolyear, the last one under affirma-tive action, to 10.7 percent the fol-lowing year, to 11.8 percent for2001-2002.At the more prestigiousUniversity of Florida, Blackenrollment increased from itspre-ban year of 9.6 percent in1999-2000 to 11.6 percent the fol-lowing year before droppingsharply to 6.9 percent in 2001-02.Overall, enrollment of all peo-ple of color stood at 36.9 percentin 2001-2002, the same level it wasin 1999-2000. For AfricanAmericans, enrollment was upone-tenth of a percent to 15.9 per-cent over that same period. oOverall, the population ofeach minority group in the first-time student population differedminimally between the pre-raceban and post-race ban years, � thereport observed. oThis finding isparticularly disheartening forblacks, who made up between15.8 and 16 percent of [studentsenrolled in state universities}but 21.2 percent in the 1999-2000high school class. �Contrary to popular belief,this poor record of collegematriculation is no fault of par-ents. oAmericans generally viewhigher education as necessaryfor successful careers, � the CivilRights Commission report noted. oResearch shows that black andHispanic parents stress theimportance of higher educationto their children more thanwhite parents. � George E. Curryis editor-in-chief of the NNPANews Service andBlackPressUSA.com.hSupreme Court to rule inaffirmative action case(SPECIAL TO THE NNPA)-TheU.S. Supreme Court will decide ifrace can apply in the admissionsprocess to public colleges anduniversities, re-igniting the affir-mative action debate it addressed24 years ago in the landmark rul-ing, Bakke vs. University ofCalifornia.The court will decide if theUniversity Michigan's school oflaw intentionally turned downWhite applicants because oftheir race. The outcome willdetermine whether affirmativeaction will be banned in highereducation or how much meaningan institution may apply to anapplicant's race."It is hardly an exaggerationto say that the court's decision inthese cases will directly affectthe lives not only of this genera-tion of students but of genera-tions of students to follow, �Theodore Shaw, counsel for theNAACP Legal Defense Fund, tuldjustices in a filing on behalf ofBlack and Hispanic students.Barbara Grutter, 43, soughtlegal action, claiming she wasdenied admission to Michigan'slaw school in 1996 because minor- "ity students received preferentialtreatment. She claims she hadbetter grades and test scores thansome minority applicants whowere admitted.The court of appeals upheldthe law school's decision last Maysaying that the Constitutionallows institutions to seek "ameaningful number" of minoritystudents, as long as the schoolavoids a fixed quota system. In1978 the court outlawed racialquotas on a 5-4 vote. Two currentjustices, Chief Justice WilliamRehnquist and John PaulStevens, served on that court.The cases "represent the mostsignificant civil rights cases theSupreme Court will have decidedin the last quarter century," Shawtold reporters.The Supreme Court plans toreview the case by March 2003and to hand down a decisionbefore July.Vegas hotel settles biassuit for $1.14M(SPECIAL TO THE NNPA)--TheEqual Employment OpportunityCommission (EEOC) has settleda $1.14 million dollar lawsuitagainst the Mirage Hotel andCasino in Las Vegas for discrimi-natory practices against Blackjob applicants.The settlement agreement,filed concurrently with theEEOC's lawsuit, provides for$840,000, in compensation forAfrican American and Hispanicworkers, along with implementa-tion of appropriate complaintprocedures, anti-discriminationtraining and record-keeping obli-gations to be monitored by theEEOC.Olophius Perry, director of theEEOC's Los Angeles districtoffice, which has jurisdiction forNevada, told reporters: "In addi-tion to providing a substantialamount of monetary relief to thevictims, the settlement puts inplace extensive mechanisms tohelp prevent discrimination inthe future. By monitoring theemployer for the next threeyears, the Commission will be ina position to act quickly shoulddiscrimination or retaliationoccur again."Remarking on the cooperationbetween the EEOC and MGMMirage in resolving the suit,Anna Y. Park, regional attorneyof EEOC Ts Los Angeles districtoffice, said, "The Commissioncongratulates all concerned inreaching this settlement. Webelieve that The Mirage and itsparent Company are committedto a policy of non-discrimina-tion. During the next three years,we will work with The Mirage toensure that the procedures put inplace by this SettlementAgreement will be administeredproperly."