Effort to ban race, gender considerations advances in Michigan

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 27, 2005

LANSING, MICH.

A group seeking to ball race and gender-based preferences in university admissions and government hiring says it submitted more than 508,000 signatures to state elections officials, a major step forward for the group's campaign.

At least 317,757 valid signatures of Michigan voters are needed to put the proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2006 ballot. Members of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative said they expect no problem in getting enough signatures certified when state elections officials review the petitions over the next few months.

"I think it's a challenge-proof initiative," said Ward Connerly, a University of California regent and national leader in the movement to ban race and gender preferences. "But anyone who wants to challenge it--make my day."

The petition drive collected more signatures than any other in state history for an initiative to change the state constitution, Secretary of State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said.

The amendment would stop public agencies and universities from granting preferential treatment based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin or sex.

Group leaders said they're not seeking a ban on all affirmative action programs. But opponents said the campaign had passed out fliers in some communities that read, "Help end 'affirmative action.'"

"It is a massive campaign of deceit," says David Waymire, spokesman for the opposition group, Citizens for a United Michigan. "People are being misled."

The campaign began after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that the University of Michigan's law school could consider race when admitting students.