Adopting Initiative 424 will require University of Nebraska-Lincoln administrators to make adjustments to continue recruiting minority students and faculty, said Tim Alvarez, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs.
He said there are too many unknowns to know how the university will handle minority recruitment if Initiative 424 passes.
Initiative 424 is a proposal to amend the Nebraska Constitution to eliminate programs promoting race, gender and ethnicity based affirmative action.
If Initiative 424 passes, UNL would potentially not be able to offer 309 minority scholarships at the undergraduate level. At the graduate level, race, gender and ethnicity would not be taken into consideration in the admissions process.
For the fall 2008 semester, 9.6 percent of undergraduates are minorities, not counting international students. UNL does not take race, gender or ethnicity into consideration at the undergraduate level, but it does for graduates. At the graduate level, 8.2 percent of students are minorities, not counting international students.
States that have passed similar initiatives - California, Michigan and Washington - have seen a decrease in minority enrollment at their top ranked institutions.
California passed Proposition 209 in 1996. Before Proposition 209, blacks made up 8 to 9 percent of the University of California, Los Angeles student body. In 2006, 2 percent of the students in its freshman class were black.
However, minority enrollment didn't decline overall. Roger Clegg, president for the Center for Equal Opportunity, explained students were reshuffled among various California schools.
"Overall, minority enrollment has not declined because students are better matched with their education level," Clegg said. "Graduation rates have actually increased."
Washington was the second state to pass an initiative to eliminate affirmative action. In 2006, CBS Interactive's Business Network (BNET) reported minorities were less likely to go to college and were more likely to drop out of high school than their white peers.
BNET also reported that fewer than 5 percent of the state's faculty members were African-American, Hispanic and American-Indian.
David Kramer, representative for Nebraskans United, an organization against Initiative 424, said having fewer minority educators hurts minority recruitment. Potential minority students don't want to attend a school where there are no people like them, he said.
Alvarez said students of color may not feel welcome at UNL and the initiative could negatively influence people's perception of Nebraska.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches issued a statement in July 2008 stating they oppose what they call "deceptively-titled Civil Rights Initiatives" because they have noticed an impact in recruiting at Washington State University, the University of Minnesota and the University of California.
Kramer and Alvarez both said they fear the same thing might happen at the University of Nebraska.
"The impact that has curdled athletic recruiting is the fact that because there is a decrease in minority faculty and minority enrollment, students notice that there aren't other kids like them around," Kramer said.
Clegg doesn't think UNL's undergraduate program's racial makeup will change if there are not any racial preferences in the admissions process now.
Alvarez said he disagrees because affirmative action programs will be eliminated.
"We will deal with the initiative if it is passed," he said, "and try to promote diversity the best we can."
alissaskelton@dailynebraskan.com
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