October 15th, 2007
It will be interesting indeed to see how this resonates in Omaha. It will be interesting to see who speaks out on this effort and who is silent.
Published Sunday | October 14, 2007
Ballot initiative targets Nebraska
LINCOLN — A California businessman who visited a Memorial Stadium skybox Saturday had to be one of the last people University of Nebraska leaders wanted to see on campus.
Ward Connerly, leader of a group that has successfully backed anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives across the United States, watched Oklahoma State’s lopsided victory from the private box of multi-millionaire Husker booster Dan Cook.
Between touchdowns, Connerly confirmed that he would attempt to get a similar initiative placed on the ballot in Nebraska.
If successful — as he was in California, Michigan and Washington — Nebraska’s public universities would no longer be able to consider race, ethnicity or gender when admitting students, hiring professors or doling out scholarship money.
Connerly’s group, the American Civil Rights Institute, infuriates college officials who say his ballot initiatives make it harder to recruit black and Hispanic students and harm a university’s mission to build a diverse student body.