Civil Rights Coalition Joins Students in Urging the Nation to Take Affirmative Action

Today, the United States Students Association and the NAACP Youth and College Division, together with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund/Americans for a Fair Chance (LCCREF/AFC), joined students in declaring October 4-8, 2004 National Take Affirmative Action Days, and urged college administrators to reaffirm their commitment to achieving diversity at colleges and universities.

“We demand colleges and universities pursue equal opportunity programs to the full extent of the law,” said Irene B. Schwoeffermann, Director of the USSA Student of Color Campus Diversity Project. “Colleges and universities must begin by showing students how serious their commitment to equal opportunity and diversity is by putting substantial resources toward efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented students.”

“This is an opportunity to show solidarity for students fighting for racial justice in higher education,” said Brandon Neal, Director of the Youth and College Division at the NAACP. “NTAAD builds support for the solutions necessary to ensure equal opportunity.”

“Following the Supreme Court’s historic decision on the Michigan cases, we are happy to support such a great example of student activism and co-sponsor National Take Affirmative Action Days, a week which will demonstrate student pro-activity in the struggle for access and equal opportunity in their local communities,” said Anjali Thakur, Field Manager of LCCREF/AFC.

LCCREF/AFC and its Student Activist Network also announced its partnership with the United States Student Association (USSA), the NAACP Youth & College Division, and other organizations to launch Students Speak! Students Speaking in Support of Affirmative Action. The focus of the campaign will be to expose the concerted effort to target minority students on campuses nationwide who face a growing trend of ethnic intimidation surrounding so-called racial preferences. They will work with college students to counter these attacks and build multi-racial coalitions on campus.