Colorado voters may halt affirmative action
Nicole Danna
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Other Campuses
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Colorado Daily
BOULDER, Colo. (U-WIRE) - A proposal scheduled for legislative review later this week may bring Colorado voters one step closer to halting affirmative action programs, including those that give preferential treatment to minorities in college admissions.
If the issue comes to ballot in Colorado next year, it will ask the state not discriminate or give preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.
But according to university officials, such a proposal would have no bearing on admission policies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Christine Wyoshimaga-Itamo, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity, said there are no race-based programs or race-based quotas at CU.
"And we have not had those for many years here at the university and I don't know if we ever did," said the 22-year CU employee. "The reason for (an affirmative action ban) is to prevent universities from using race-based quotas, and that simply does not happen (here), so (a ban) would have no impact," said Wyoshimaga-Itamo.
For that reason, said Wyoshimaga-Itamo, an affirmative action ban in Colorado would have no affect on CU's current admission policies.
The proposal comes in the wake of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling that found the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy in law school admissions - a point system that considered race as a factor for undergraduate admission - unconstitutional.
Teresa Hernandez, director of CU's Student Outreach Retention Center for Equity (SORCE), agreed with Wyoshimaga-Itamo.
"The greater community believes that we are operating under affirmative action, and we aren't," said Hernandez, adding SORCE is just one of the campuses existing programs that work to support diversity and minority outreach and retention on campus.
Hernandez said she believes state employers - compared to colleges and universities - would be more affected by such a ban.
BOULDER, Colo. (U-WIRE) - A proposal scheduled for legislative review later this week may bring Colorado voters one step closer to halting affirmative action programs, including those that give preferential treatment to minorities in college admissions.
If the issue comes to ballot in Colorado next year, it will ask the state not discriminate or give preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.
But according to university officials, such a proposal would have no bearing on admission policies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Christine Wyoshimaga-Itamo, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity, said there are no race-based programs or race-based quotas at CU.
"And we have not had those for many years here at the university and I don't know if we ever did," said the 22-year CU employee. "The reason for (an affirmative action ban) is to prevent universities from using race-based quotas, and that simply does not happen (here), so (a ban) would have no impact," said Wyoshimaga-Itamo.
For that reason, said Wyoshimaga-Itamo, an affirmative action ban in Colorado would have no affect on CU's current admission policies.
The proposal comes in the wake of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling that found the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy in law school admissions - a point system that considered race as a factor for undergraduate admission - unconstitutional.
Teresa Hernandez, director of CU's Student Outreach Retention Center for Equity (SORCE), agreed with Wyoshimaga-Itamo.
"The greater community believes that we are operating under affirmative action, and we aren't," said Hernandez, adding SORCE is just one of the campuses existing programs that work to support diversity and minority outreach and retention on campus.
Hernandez said she believes state employers - compared to colleges and universities - would be more affected by such a ban.
Be the first to comment on this story