Students from MSU and the University of Michigan put their rivalries aside Friday to discuss a Supreme Court case challenging U-M's admissions policy.
"If we don't start to organize here on campus and in the Lansing area, we aren't going to be in a position to defend the gains that our communities have had here at this university," said Ernesto Mireles, co-chairman of Culturas de las Razas Unidas.
The student groups are urging MSU to take a public stance on the U-M policy, which awards points to racial and ethnic minorities and socially and economically disadvantaged students.
"It is not okay that this university has not filed a friend of the court brief," Mireles said. "I think that's reflective of the conservative Republican politics that control this university."
MSU's Board of Trustees has five Republicans and three Democrats.
A friend of the court brief is an argument in support or disapproval on an issue.
"The Board of Trustees is taking the easy way out," Mireles said. "They're all talking about how sad is that the Board of Trustees can't make a statement.
"That doesn't preclude them from making statements as individuals."
Republican Trustee Dee Cook said people need to be reminded that when trustees express opinions, they do not speak for the entire board.
"Trustees can say whatever they want," Cook said. "If the board has a position, the chairperson should articulate that issue."
Cook said diversity is essential to any college campus, and MSU's policy allows for that.
"If they are socially or economically deprived, then they have an opportunity to come to Michigan State," she said. "It has nothing to do with their race."
Stephanie King, Black Caucus director for the MSU Black Student Alliance, said affirmative action has yet to make MSU's campus diverse.
In fall 2001, MSU recorded 7,132 ethnic minority students. More than 44,000 students are enrolled at MSU.
"We don't have people here that look like us, that talk like us, that think like us, that walk like us," King said. "We don't have the support."
MSU Trustee Dorothy Gonzales said she did benefit from affirmative action as a student. She added that students coming together to discuss the issue is necessary.
"That's what education is all about in the broader sense," she said. "It needs to be debated, it needs to be looked at so that people understand what it means."
Gonzales, a Democrat, said she is in favor of affirmative action.
Collaboration with students at U-M is vital to express the importance of the issue, said Bryan Newland, co-president of the North American Indian Student Organization.
"We have an athletic rivalry and an academic rivalry, but the bottom line is we're involved in the same struggle," he said. "It's shameful that all the colleges have taken a stand one way or another on the issue, but 50 miles down the road at MSU, we can't come out with a public statement."
