Face The State Staff Report
The future of Colorado's equal opportunity programs was the source of a two-hour debate Thursday night at the University of Colorado’s law school in Boulder. Experts representing both sides of Amendment 46, a measure that would prohibit race and gender preferences in public education, hiring and contracting presented their case to an audience of about 70 people, mostly law students.
Joe Neguse and Melissa HartFTS Staff Photo
Representing the campaign was its executive director, Jessica Corry, and its honorary co-chair, Linda Chavez. The duo fielded questions from a skeptical audience. One student questioned why the measure would only address race and gender preferences in education, while ignoring legacy and athletic preferences.
While Chavez denounced legacy preferences at public institutions, she articulated a difference between the use of race and the use of legacy status. "We fought a civil war over race," she responded.
Melissa Hart, a CU professor and opponent of Amendment 46, told the audience that similar measures to Amendment 46, including one in California, have resulted in fewer minority students being admitted to top public universities. Chavez countered saying that while fewer were admitted to top schools, minority admissions overall increased as did their graduation rates. According to Corry, minority students have seen their numbers rise at seven of nine University of California schools, and women now represent nearly 60 percent of all students system-wide.
Joining Hart to speak against the initiative was Joe Neguse, a third-year CU law student. He brought up CU's 6 percent Latino population compared to Colorado's 20 percent Latino population as a justification for continuing race and gender-based affirmative action.
One woman questioned the decrease in male matriculation rates and what could be done. Under Amendment 46, public universities would not be allowed to give preferences to men who are underrepresented in the system.
Corry, who also serves as an editorial contributor to Face The State, suggested that part of the reason men now only account for 44 percent of CU's student population is because they have been largely excluded from outreach programs targeted at women over the last four decades. "It's pretty clear what's happening," she said. "We left our boys at home for 'Take Our Daughters to Work Day' and now we're starting to pay the price."
According to one CU law student, who saw Hart speak at orientation and spoke on the condition that her name not be used, Corry and Chavez had an uphill battle because Hart bashes Amendment 46 “every chance she gets.”
"It's concerning that Professor Hart would us her influence as a professor to push students to vote a certain way," Corry said. "This allegation is very serious and may be in violation of state law."
Under state statute, public employees are limited in their ability to use taxpayer funds to advocate for the passage or defeat of political measures.
“I think a lot of people learned things. I don’t know if they wanted to learn things,” said Annmarie Cording, a CU law student in attendance.