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Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action are not the same thing.
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By Mike Cuenca | January 21, 2003
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To be sure, KU has no reason to worry they’ll be accused of utilizing
quotas in affirmative action. That’s because KU hasn’t practiced
affirmative action for many years.
When Chancellor Hemenway took over at KU, there was an Office of
Affirmative Action. That office is now called the Office of Equal
Opportunity. The change may seem insignificant, but there is a very
real and very big difference between the two. Those who espouse “equal
opportunity” over “affirmative action” will say that EO is what we’re
seeking, after all. That’s true, but the reality is that the EO
approach is based on the presumption that everything will work itself
out without any real anti-discrimination effort, sort of a
“sit-back-and-watch” approach. The AA approach is based on the
presumption that actual energy must be expended to overcome
institutionalized prejudices and attitudes that lead to discrimination
in the workplace. The EO employer assumes most people will be virtuous
and won’t discriminate. The AA employer assumes that many people have
subtle, subconscious prejudices and discriminatory attitudes that
affect their employment decisions in ways that negatively affect women,
minorities and others. The AA employer recognizes discrimination will
continue until it’s addressed and stopped.
In the years since Hemenway changed KU’s approach, the University has
faced 44 civil rights lawsuits in federal court alone. K-State, which
still has an Office of Affirmative Action, faced only 10 lawsuits
during the same period. That’s a pretty good indication of which
approach works better.
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