The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.13           April 5, 1999 
 
 
University Of Massachusetts Students Protest Attack On Affirmative Action  

BY TED LEONARD
AMHERST, Massachusetts - "Save Affirmative Action, Don't bring 209 to MA" and "Race does matter" were a couple of the signs that greeted the 400 students, faculty and others who heard Ward Connerly speak at Amherst College March 10.

Connerly served on the Proposition 209 Committee, which successfully campaigned for a California referendum barring affirmative action in state-funded programs. Connerly's lecture was entitled "Why Race Doesn't Matter." The program was sponsored by the Conservative Students Union at Amherst College and the Young American Foundation.

The Affirmative Action Task Force, which organized the picket line, also encouraged people to attend the lecture and debate Connerly.

Three weeks earlier, on February 19, University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) chancellor David Scott announced the public university would end affirmative action for students who are Black or of other oppressed nationalities. The school would instead have a new admissions policy supposedly considering factors such as family income, level of family education, and geography.

More than 300 students marched and rallied March 3 to protest the Chancellor's decision. Signs at the action said "Defend Affirmative Action" and "Remember Goodell."

Two years earlier on March 3, students occupied the Goodell Library on campus. The occupation lasted for six days and demanded among other things the administration live up to its promise of a 20 percent quota of undergraduate students of oppressed nationalities.

Also on the evening of March 3 a "Teach In/Speak Out" was held, sponsored by the Student Parent Campaign. Fifty people participated. Activists in the committee used the event to expose the school's record on support for "low-income" students. In 1995 with the help of welfare assistance there were 900 "low-income" students on campus. That number has now fallen to a little over 100.

Following Connerly's presentation, dozens of people lined up at the microphone to confront him. Amherst College student Justin Snider read a list of statistics exposing the white male job trust that exists in a number of occupations. He said there were only three possible explanations: "First, you could say that that's random, which I think is ridiculous. Second you could say white males are superior, and me being a white male I can tell you they're not. Third, which I think is the right answer, is that the game has been stacked."

A flyer passed out at the event noted, "With the legalizing of Proposition 209, at the University of California Berkeley campus, the number of African Americans admitted dropped by 66 percent, while the number of Latinos admitted decreased by 53 percent."

At UMass, the administration predicts enrollment of students of oppressed nationalities will drop about a third, from 19 percent to 13 percent.

Another rally and march was held on the UMass campus March 11 demanding a one-year moratorium on implementing the policy change and the creation of a independent committee to draft a new admissions policy.

Ted Leonard is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

 
 
 
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