Houston
Waning political support for
affirmative action poses new obstacles for
advocates and equal opportunity officers, leaders
of the American Association for Affirmative
Action (AAAA) said here in April at their
annual conference.
Association members, many of whom are
affirmative action and equal opportunity
officers at public institutions, were urged to
educate and organize their employers and the
public to defend the policy that many say has
helped women and minorities increase access to
jobs and education in the past thirty years.
“Our members are looking to us to help
them continue to justify their own existence. It
was difficult for some people to be able to
come to this conference because it was
affirmative action, though that is what they
do,” said Ruth Jones, president of the
1,000-member association and director of equal
opportunity at Old Dominion University.
Approximately half of the membership works in
higher education.
According to Jones, conflicting legal
interpretations of judicial rulings on affirmative
action programs have placed association
members in a difficult position.
“Who do you think the president of a
university is going to listen to — an affirmative
action officer or the senior legal counsel?” asked
Jones.
Many of the 260 conference participants
were reeling from prominent political and
judicial setbacks last year including the passage
of Proposition 209 in California, which bans
affirmative action in public institutions, and the
Hopwood decision, which bans affirmative
action at Texas colleges and universities. Texas is the only
state in the nation under a court order that bans
affirmative action at public colleges and
universities.
Last year’s decision by the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals was discussed at keynote
sessions because some universities outside of the
Fifth Circuit are using decision to dismantle their
affirmative action programs, even though the
court only has jurisdiction over Texas,
Mississippi, and Louisiana.
“Every state suddenly thinks it’s in the Fifth
Circuit,” said Barbara Arnwine, executive
director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law and one of six keynote
speakers at the conference.
Many conference sessions focused on
strategies to defend affirmative action — from
how to explain the importance of policy in the
workplace to how to organize voters to defeat
initiatives and legislation.
