Friday, February 13, 2004

Reading the 1964 CRA 

We reported yesterday that the resumption of affirmative action bake sales at Colorado University trumpeted as a success for FIRE has led to a resumption of protests at CU. The university took an interesting tack:
CU Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Ronald Stump told the Colorado Daily Tuesday the bake sale was in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights act and mandated it be stopped.

"According to federal law, state statute, and University policy, we believe it is illegal to sell goods or services with differentiated prices based on race or ethnicity," said Stump. "It's not a free speech issue. They need to find another means which is legal to make their point."
The CRs changed the wording to "donation" and made payment optional.

Now this is rather hypocritical of any university. A financial aid package changes the price for college faced by different students. Use of minority scholarships, then, would be a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Wouldn't CU be obligated first to throw out those programs before pursuing the discriminatory cookie sellers?

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