Affirmative action needs to be replaced

By CHRISTOPHER J. ORTIZ
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University

Last summer I wrote a column about affirmative action. In that column, I told our state legislature that if they were going to remove race from consideration in college admissions, it needed to come up with a plan to continue to add diversity to our state colleges.
Let's get the facts out of the way. Yes my last name is Ortiz, a Spanish-Mexican last name. I was born in New Mexico. My family comes from Spain and from Native American tribes but not have I once applied for a minority-based scholarship or grant nor did I check the "Hispanic" box when I applied to colleges - including CSU.
The Colorado General Assembly saw a new bill asking to remove racial preferences in higher education admissions. One of the supporters of the bill is Sen. Ed Jones, an African American. To lift a quote from Collegian reporter Christiana Nelson's story, "Offending action," Jones said, "Affirmative action is all about race. I believe it is time to move forward and end this source of racial tension."
The reason I mentioned above that I have never gone for minority scholarships is because I don't personally agree with affirmative action. It is not enough. It is outdated. It is unfair in any way you slice the pie.
Everyone loves bake sales right? Brad Jones of the University of Boulder's College Republicans held a bake sale on campus. He initially wanted to charge people different prices for items based on the buyer's race. A Caucasian would pay, let's say, $1 for a brownie while an African American would only pay 75 cents for the same brownie. Jones did this to pun how he feels affirmative action gives minorities the upper hand, unfairly, in college admissions and scholarships. Jones was barred from actually changing prices by the administration; citing the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, state statue and university rules. He was allowed to post "suggested donations," but his point got across.
Agree with affirmative action or not, this bake sale straight up shows how affirmative action works in some areas, including admissions.
For a lot of students, without scholarships they wouldn't be attending college. Jason Mattera, the president of College Republicans at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, offered a whites-only scholarship to express their opposition against race-based scholarships and affirmative action, according to a CNN report. This scholarship received a lot of criticism - partly because Mattera is a recipient of a Hispanic College Fund scholarship (can we say hypocrite) - but mainly because it was viewed as racist. But why? No one bats an eye when scholarships are offered only for African Americans or Native Americans. Why? But in our country, it is allowed because these segments of the population have been suppressed in the past and also because minorities are unrepresented in higher education and this is a way to increase numbers. I blame White Guilt for the former but you can come up with your own theory.
In a state that has more than a 20 percent minority population, only 11.2 percent of CSU's student body is minority. I don't believe our student body has to necessarily reflect the demographics of state (not all our peers come from the state and not all Colorado high school students go instate) but it should be something CSU strives for. The goal should be to increase the applicant pool of students applying to CSU. If not affirmative action, then what? I support the proposed bill to remove race in consideration but only if the legislature and CSU work out a program to reach our diversity goals. They can't remove affirmative action without replacing it with a program that is fair and promotes diversity.
Either that be by instating more college prep classes in high schools or having CSU recruit minorities stronger but the same people removing affirmative action are responsible for implicating a program to further diversify our campus.
If affirmative action needs to be replaced, I support that - it is outdated and is unfair but we can't just cut affirmative action and hope for the best. We need to consider alternative options to diversity.

Chris is a senior majoring in history and journalism. He is the opinion editor for The Collegian and although he is Spanish, he doesn't speak the language or like chili.