"N.C. Student Leaders Indecisive Over Affirmative Action"

"N.C. Student Leaders Indecisive Over Affirmative Action"

The Nubian Message, North Carolina State University's African American student newspaper, was first published on November 30, 1992. In this January 30, 1997 article, Managing Editor Carolyn Holloway reported on the affirmative action debate that arose during a recent UNC-System Student Government Association meeting. Representatives from North Carolina's public colleges and universities disagreed on using the phrase "affirmative action" in legislation that would be presented to the UNC System President and Board of Governors. As Holloway reported, over a third of the student leaders at the meeting voted against using the term, "affirmative action," in SGA legislation either because they thought that the term was polarizing and connoted entrance quotas based on race, or because they believed that programs should be based solely on merit. The majority of student leaders, however, voted in favor of using the term, "affirmative action," in legislation, with several students arguing that affirmative action programs are intended not only to provide opportunities for racial and ethnic minorities to attend college, but to provide opportunities for other underrepresented populations--such as students from rural communities--to attend college as well. Holloway noted that several historically black colleges did not have representatives at the meeting, suggesting that they may have influenced the course of the debate had they been there.

The UNC-System Student Government Association consists of student delegates from each of the sixteen public universities in the state. These delegates work collaboratively to address student issues and bring these issues to the attention of the UNC System Board of Governors. During the 1990s, affirmative action, or measures to ensure equal opportunity and prevent future discrimination for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, was a controversial issue nationwide. Public opinion was divided over whether affirmative action programs were positive efforts at redressing historical discrimination, or if, by differentiating based on race (and other aspects, such as gender), these programs were discriminatory themselves. Multiple court cases on the federal level struck down race-based scholarship and admissions programs at universities, bringing the issue to college campuses across the country. The debate at the UNC-SGA meeting that this article covered can therefore been seen within this larger context.

Carolyn Holloway, Managing Editor

Carolyn Holloway, "N.C. Student Leaders Indecisive Over Affirmative Action," The Nubian Message 5, no. 19 (January 30, 1997): 1-2. Digitized by the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.

1997-01-30

Rose Buchanan

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N.C. Student Leaders Indecisive Over Affirmative Action

By Carolyn Holloway

The wait over the student debate for Affirmative Action may be over in the UNC-System.

Recently, in the gathering of UNC-Student Government leaders at UNC-Chapel Hill, students began the discussion of what may be the hottest issue since Ebonics here in North Carolina.

In an unexpected move, the issue of Affirmative Action was brought up by student leaders, yet in the end, more than a third of the students present voted against using the phrase "Affirmative Action" in legislation that would be presented to the General Assembly.

The first time Affirmative Action was mentioned in the presence of these students [sic] leaders, plethora of discussions ensued, followed by a tense dispute.

As the UNC-SGA made up its list of what to lobby for on behalf of its 150,000 constituents, a suggested priority was to keep Affirmative Action programs in place - a clear goal of President C.D. Spangler and the UNC Board of Governors.

Yet, all the students representing the individual colleges did not feel as if the goal of the President and the Board of Governors correlated with the goals of their colleges. Of the attending representatives, the vote came to a final 20-12 in favor of sanctioning the use of the phrase "Affirmative Action" in official legislation.

With only half of the eligible delegates attending the meeting and several schools represented not sending full delegations, such feelings caused some schools to vote unanimous and others to be split in their representatives' final decision. Five schools were not represented including historically black institutions Elizabeth City State University, N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University, and Winston-Salem State University. N.C. School of the Arts and Pembroke were not represented.

N.C. Central, N.C. State, Fayetteville State University, and UNC-CH, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Greensboro, and UNC-Charlotte all voted unanimously in favor of using the phrase "Affirmative Action" and to keep Affirmative Action programs in place.

Jeff Niemann, student representative of NCSU and a member of the Student Senate said the dispute over Affirmative Action existed in the meeting because "the word Affirmative Actions needed to be defined." [sic]

In lieu of that definition, Niemann said he voted for Affirmative Action because "Affirmative Action gives equal access to all people and it ensures equal access to persons who have historically been denied that access in the past."

During the meeting, Niemann said "Broad definitions are good, but Affirmative Action is a divisive term. We must look at what Affirmative Action hopes to accomplish, not at political terminology."

Another student representative of NCSU, Joe Kleinman, said "everybody is for the goals of Affirmative Actions but feel as if the words are negative. Some students felt as if the actual words Affirmative Action would turn off the legislators." Kleinman, however, said he voted for Affirmative Action because inequalities still exist that can only be fixed through such programs.

Of the other universities represented, East Carolina and UNC-Wilmington voted unanimously against using the phrase "Affirmative Action" with Western Carolina, Appalachian State University, and UNC-CH divided in their decision.

ASU's Student Government Vice President Todd Poole declared he opposed Affirmative Action programs and that the majority of ASU's student body did, too. Poole later said, "I think we need to get a system based on merit."

Yet, not many present agreed with Poole, including Joe Monroe of Western Carolina. Monroe, vice president of student government, at Western, said [page 2] "Affirmative Action programs provide opportunities that would not normally exist.["] Also, "if we do not say specifically what we want by using the word Affirmative Action, the General Assembly can use that vagueness as a way to say they do not understand the proposal."

John Dervin, president of the UNC-CH's SGA, said many students misunderstand the word Affirmative Action to mean quotas. To him, Affirmative Action, also means equal access for students traditionally under-represented in higher education - from poor students to Native Americans and students from rural school systems that may not have prepared them well enough.

Dervin's statements correlated with the President Spangler's goal. Spangler's intent is to make sure no one's background prevents them from attending one of the 16 campuses in the UNC system.

Affirmative action "is [designed] to make sure everybody on campus does not look the same way, because society does not look the same way. Society is complex and part of the college experience is learning how to live in it," Spangler said.

To help meet the goals of Affirmative Action and integration, 10.6 percent black population at predominantly white universities and colleges and a 15 percent white population at historically black colleges and universities has been implemented [sic]. Along with that percentage, $1.6 million in scholarships are being used to help attract students to campuses where they will be in the minority.

On February 14, the student government leaders of the University of North Carolina plan to convene and take another vote on the Affirmative Action platform after hearing from students on respective campuses.

(Information courtesy of Cynthia Barnett at The News and Observer)

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