Nebraska Educators Oppose Effort to Abolish Affirmative Action

The State College Board of Trustees, the Nebraska Community College Association, and the University of Nebraska Board of Regents have all come out in opposition to the so-called Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative. The referendum, which supporters plan to place on the November 2008 ballot, would ban the use of race in admissions decisions, in faculty hiring, or in the awarding of scholarships at all publicly operated colleges and universities in the state.

Nebraska was one of five states originally targeted for affirmative action referendums this year by Ward Connerly, head of the American Civil Rights Institute. But efforts to place the initiatives on the ballot in Oklahoma and Missouri were unsuccessful.

It appears that initiatives will be on the ballot in Colorado and Arizona. In Nebraska, supporters of the measure must submit 115,000 signatures by July 4 in order to place the referendum on the ballot this fall.

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