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12 years after CA's prop 209:
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I'm against affirmative action, but I think private schools and scholarships should still have the discretion to consider whatever they want in supply and education and money. Anyway, it probably won't pass. Yet I see this as another step in the US showing how not racist we really are becoming.
More than 100 privately funded scholarships given to University of Colorado at Boulder students each year in disciplines ranging from theater to law could be at risk should an amendment pass in November prohibiting public colleges from considering gender or ethnicity when doling out help.
Officials at the state's flagship university are reviewing everything from school-aid programs to rules governing the behemoth admissions office — CU-Boulder receives more than 23,000 applications a year — that currently consider race and socioeconomics as secondary characteristics for admission.
Should voters approve Amendment 46, public higher-education institutions would probably have to alter the way they admit students and give them money.
What many university lawyers and presidents are still unclear about, however, is how privately funded scholarships — with the intent to help students of color or women, for example — will be affected.
Colleges may be prohibited from administering even private scholarships, if they consider race or gender.
CU-Boulder admissions director Kevin McClennan already has begun thinking about how to admit students differently. The school also is contacting private donors who sponsor the scholarships for students based on race, ethnicity or gender to see whether they would be willing to forgo that criteria.
The university did the analysis because of public inquiries about the initiative, officials said.
Because the school says it still values admitting a diverse pool of students, it may instead ask potential students about what kinds of challenges they've overcome or their parents' educational level, McClennan said.
"It becomes more of a socioeconomic and whole-person review, rather than looking at a particular box, race, ethnicity or gender," he said.
This is welcome news to the campaign pushing the measure, called the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative.
Executive director Jessica Peck Corry, who also works for the Independence Institute, said she advocates "colorblind affirmative action."
"This analysis by CU shows what we've known all along — that not a single program would have to go away," she said, noting that CU would simply have to change how it gave out certain scholarships, not eliminate them.
Officials at public colleges and universities across the state are performing similar reviews.
At Metropolitan State College of Denver, president Steve Jordan said the school is talking to lawyers about whether state employees are legally able to decide who gets private scholarships under the proposed law.
Jordan also asked the head of public higher education in Washington state for an analysis of how a law similar to the proposed Amendment 46 in Colorado has affected diversity at public schools there.
California and Michigan have similar laws as well.
"I know in other parts of the country, it's tended to have a chilling effect on students of color and their decision to attend an institution," Jordan said.
Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander said Thursday that should the amendment pass, if a student volunteered ethnicity information in a college-admissions essay, for example, that information would have to be redacted before going to the admissions committee.
Officials at the state's flagship university are reviewing everything from school-aid programs to rules governing the behemoth admissions office — CU-Boulder receives more than 23,000 applications a year — that currently consider race and socioeconomics as secondary characteristics for admission.
Should voters approve Amendment 46, public higher-education institutions would probably have to alter the way they admit students and give them money.
What many university lawyers and presidents are still unclear about, however, is how privately funded scholarships — with the intent to help students of color or women, for example — will be affected.
Colleges may be prohibited from administering even private scholarships, if they consider race or gender.
CU-Boulder admissions director Kevin McClennan already has begun thinking about how to admit students differently. The school also is contacting private donors who sponsor the scholarships for students based on race, ethnicity or gender to see whether they would be willing to forgo that criteria.
The university did the analysis because of public inquiries about the initiative, officials said.
Because the school says it still values admitting a diverse pool of students, it may instead ask potential students about what kinds of challenges they've overcome or their parents' educational level, McClennan said.
"It becomes more of a socioeconomic and whole-person review, rather than looking at a particular box, race, ethnicity or gender," he said.
This is welcome news to the campaign pushing the measure, called the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative.
Executive director Jessica Peck Corry, who also works for the Independence Institute, said she advocates "colorblind affirmative action."
"This analysis by CU shows what we've known all along — that not a single program would have to go away," she said, noting that CU would simply have to change how it gave out certain scholarships, not eliminate them.
Officials at public colleges and universities across the state are performing similar reviews.
At Metropolitan State College of Denver, president Steve Jordan said the school is talking to lawyers about whether state employees are legally able to decide who gets private scholarships under the proposed law.
Jordan also asked the head of public higher education in Washington state for an analysis of how a law similar to the proposed Amendment 46 in Colorado has affected diversity at public schools there.
California and Michigan have similar laws as well.
"I know in other parts of the country, it's tended to have a chilling effect on students of color and their decision to attend an institution," Jordan said.
Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander said Thursday that should the amendment pass, if a student volunteered ethnicity information in a college-admissions essay, for example, that information would have to be redacted before going to the admissions committee.
I'm against affirmative action, but I think private schools and scholarships should still have the discretion to consider whatever they want in supply and education and money. Anyway, it probably won't pass. Yet I see this as another step in the US showing how not racist we really are becoming.
) etc. wasn't an issue. 
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