Our Take: Everyone deserves a shot at a good education

Conservatives will argue the Colorado Equal Rights Initiative is not deceptively named. It does, after all, call on the voters to prohibit state institutions from considering gender, race, color, ethnicity or national origin when evaluating students. Essentially, no matter if a prospective student is black or white, male or female, Jewish or Muslim, he or she wouldn't get any special treatment if the initiative passes.

Fair enough, unless you think supporting the educational aspirations of women and minorities is important. Yes, women are as smart as men. Blacks are as smart as whites, and so on. This is a point on which those on both sides of this debate seem to agree. Connerly and his ilk contend that racially based allowances are an insult to people of color because they assume minorities cannot succeed on their own. Liberals tend to view quotas and other Affirmative Action-style programs as a form of payback for unfair treatment in the past, not, they say, as a boost for less intelligent people. They just want to level the playing field, they say, to give everyone a chance to succeed.

Take a walk around the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado and you'll get some idea of what the proponents of Affirmative Action are so concerned about. Everywhere you look white faces stare back. There are few minorities to speak of and one rarely encouters groups of Black or Hispanic young people hanging out or studying together. Despite well-publicized efforts by the University to recruit and retain minority students CU-Boulder remains an overwhelmingly white school.

On Thursday CU released its assesment of the potential impact it would face if the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative passes in November. The university says it has determined that the amendment would have no effect on outreach programs aimed at recruiting high school students, or on campus student services such as academic and career advising, orientation and tutoring because these programs are open to all students.

Admissions, on the other hand, would be impacted according to the university. Currently, the university views race, ethnicity and gender as secondary qualifying factors for admission to CU. If voters pass Amendment 46, they say, those factors would no longer be considered.

We think the University of Colorado has its hands full trying to get and keep young minority students as it is. Passing Amendment 46 would only hurt those efforts, making recruitment of minorities harder and making CU an even more unwelcoming place for its current minority students.