0 0 _ _ 0 0 2B September. statement Magazine Editor: Carolyn Klarecki Editor in Chief: Stephanie Steinberg Managing Editor: Nick Spar Deputy Editors: Stephen Ostrowski Devon Thorsby Elyana Twiggs Designers: Maya Friedman Hermes Risien Photos: Sarah Squire Copy Editors: Hannah Poindexter The Statement is The Michigan Daily's news magazine, distributed every Wednesday during the academic year To contact The Statement e-mail klarecki@michigandaily.com. Cover by Sarah Squire THE DAILY'S ANNUAL BREW COMPETITION IS COMING UP! Gather your hops! BOTTLES ARE DUE ON OCT 16. Contact klarecki@ michigandaily.com Wednesday, September 7,21 /T E 3Saeet 7 COMMf The Diversity Debate LIGA TION By Brienne Prusak Regardless of your answer to the prior question, please indicate how you identify yourself. (Check all that apply.) ( American Indian or Alaska Native (including all Original Peoples of the Americas) Analytical Student Positions. Use your intelligence and critical thinking skills to protect your nation while gaining valuable skills. Apply for an exciting and challenging internship or cooperative education experience at the Directorate of Intelligence within the CIA. You'll work with and learn from analysts responsible for providing timely, insightful assessments to US decision makers and others in the intelligence community Applications for Summer 2012 employment will be accepted until October 15, 2011. Applications for winter, spring and fall employment should be sent nine to twelve months before the desired start date. Opportunities are available for undergraduate and graduate students with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Applicants must have US citizenship and the ability to successfully complete medical examinations and security procedures, including a polygraph interview. An equal opportunity employer and a drug-free work force. For additional information and to apply, visit www.cia.gov T THE WORK OF ANATION. ] THE CENTER OF t'TELLRIGENCE. t's been 40 years since John F. Kennedy asked Ameri- cans to "take affirmative action to ensure that appli- cants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." That was 118 years after the first known African American student was admitted to the Uni- versity in1853. On July 1, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals repealed Proposal 2, returning Michigan colleges to their original admissions method in which race and gender are consid- ered in an effort to promote diversity in the student body. Proposal 2 - an amendment to section 26 article 1 of the state constitution- passed in 2006 with a 58 percent to 42 percent vote, proving residents' desire for all Michigan public colleges and universities to discontinue preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. While the future of Proposal 2 is unclear, the repeal begs the question: Is affirmative action still necessary in the world today? Affirmative action or race preference? Prof. of Philosophy Carl Cohen, a leader of the Proposal 2 initiative, argued that affirmative action will always be a positive thing. But what he opposes is the idea of preference based on race and gender. "Is affirmative action still necessary? Well, in the original sense I think it is," Cohen said. "I think there's still reason, for example, to have committees and boards to investigate whether or not there's discriminatory conduct taking place. There's still reason to examine efforts to determine wheth- er or not qualifications for certain types of employment are really relevant or are ways of weeding people out. "What do we think of race preference? That's really the issue. We all support affirmative action, or at least anyone decent does. What we don't all support is preference." He believes preference based on race is "unhealthy" for minority groups because while individuals get breaks, the group is "put under a cloud" by the assumption that many group members are accepted into colleges or hired for employment because of affirmative action and not because they deserve to be. Many minorities who went to college under affirmative action could have been accepted without the policy, and the disadvantages of affirmative action are far greater in the long run, Cohen said. . "When you see blacks on our campus now, they didn't get here with preference. You can't look down your nose at minorities at Michigan now. You can't say, 'Oh, you know how they got here.' Not now, not in Michigan. And I think that's a great thing for the minorities. They don't have to excuse themselves," he said. One of the main arguments Cohen has against the imple- mentation of affirmative action is that the United States constitution clearly states the consideration of race - the basis of affirmative action - is illegal. "It's wrong to treat anyone different because of their race. Race should not count, and it's wrong if it counts," he said. Hidden disadvantages within race John Matlock, associate vice provost and director of the office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, said he sup- ports affirmative action, especially since University admis- sions also considers many aspects apart from race. Affirmative action enables minorities to get an educa- tion, which will help them get jobs - something he said he believes is vital to the success of our country. "College is a gateway to success, and if we keep people from going to college, we really have an impact on the suc- cess of individuals and also the future of the country," he explained. Matlock further explained that because minorities still face prejudice in the U.S., and it's harder for them to get jobs, affirmative action is necessary in order to level the playing field. He added that an education increases the chances of minorities to be hired, and their success creates a cyclical response. "As we become more and more diverse as a society, we have a strong commitment to educating everyone," Matlock said. Professor Vincent Hutchings, a scholar of race relations, said affirmative action is still necessary because many minorities continue to be more disadvantaged than whites. "There is no dispute that there is a vastly distinctive racial environment for blacks and other minorities," Hutch- ings said. "It is because of that, that policies such as affir- mative action - whatever its flaws and whatever its virtues - were designed to begin the process of trying to address that longstanding inequality." Many minorities have backgrounds, like living in lower socioeconomic areas, that put them at a disadvantage. The University does not consider these when reviewing applica- tions so Hutchings maintains that affirmative action is nec- essary to equate racial groups. Creating diversity, creating education Richard Lempert, a professor emeritus of law who stud- ied affirmative action at the University Law School from 1970 to 1996, said the decision to appeal Proposal 2 is wise and important to society because it's helpful for minorities, especially in a world where a white person with a criminal record is more likely to get a job than a black person with no record. He emphasized that the University doesn't admit unqualified students, and affirmative action just helps cre- ate diversity among the classes, concentrations and campus communities. His argument echoes the June 23,2003 ruling of the United States Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger, which found that race should be taken into consideration because diversity on campus is an educational benefit. "I think of all the things the University has done dur- ing my time there, there is little we can be prouder of than its indications of the education of minorities, to bringing minorities to what was primarily an all-white campus and equippingthem for much better lives," Lempert said. Now, minorities often gain admission based completely on their qualifications, with no regard to race, Lempert said. He added that affirmative action has helped the University tremendously by improvingthe quality of discussions in the classrooms because students with different backgrounds see the world in different ways. "The focus on diversity is particularly important in mak- ing the U.S. and the University of Michigan truly a world- class university where people from other countries want to come and study, and it's always been an excellent university, and it might be excellent without affirmative action, but it would be different in character. It would not be as valuable or, I think, as well functioning as it is," Lempert said. Professor of Political Science and Economics Scott Page, who studies the effect of diversity on institutions and soci- ety, echoed these sentiments, saying in order to promote research and knowledge worldwide, the University needs a variety of people contributing their ideas and experiences. Even without affirmative action, when admitting students, the University considers what students will bring to the table - including their individual life experiences, which are often dependent on race. The larger picture Matlock said a lot of institutions look at the University as a model because of its comprehensive commitment to promote diversity, and many students choose to attend the ' University because of its reputation for diversity. According to Matlock, exposure to all types of people is necessary in the world we live in today. Once in the work- force, graduates need to work with all types of people. "We live in a world and a country that's becoming increasingly diverse and will continue to do that well into the future," Matlock said. Page added that affirmative action allows students to bet- ter understand "what the human experience is," and with a predominantly global workforce, collaborating with all kinds of people is a necessity. "We're doing you a disservice if we say, 'Come to Michi- gan and only learn to interact with the people who look exactly like you," he said. "But if we say, 'Come to Michigan and learn to interact with the people who are different from See ACTION, Page 8B { i R \.... {{j E ~ .. 4 '- o Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Original Peoples) O White (including Middle Eastern) QAsian (including Indian subcontinent and Philippines QBlack or African American (including Africa Caribbean)