PUBLIC STATEMENT
June 24, 1998

Amigos y Companeros,

Together we have gathered about 350,000 signatures. Unfortunately, we do not
have the 700,000 signatures needed to place the Equal Educational Opportunity
Initiative on the California ballot.

Since 209 passed, I have told everyone who would listen that in the short run
the only way to avoid an admissions nightmare in our public universities is to
directly reverse 209. A group of students at Boalt wrote the EEOI to do just
that. We had experienced the damage wrought by the elimination of affirmative-
action at our law school, foresaw its impact throughout the UC system, and
tried to do something about it before the problem spread.

Thousands of students at over fifty California schools and hundreds of non-
students at more than 35 non-school organizations shared our concerns and
joined our efforts. As we knew at the outset, an initiative is an enormous
undertaking. It usually costs more than $1 million to put a constitutional
initiative on the ballot. With only $35,000 and a lot of heart, our entirely
volunteer effort gathered half the signatures needed.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who gathered signatures for
the EEOI. I, and many others, appreciate your efforts and sacrifices. They are
one more link in the chain of struggles for social justice. I look forward to
working with you to add many more links to this chain. I believe the challenge
now is to continue to find creative ways to take the offensive and promote
social justice in this arena and others. The initiatives we have been fighting
against of late are the result of consistent efforts over the past few decades
to shift the public debate to the right. We must shift it back. We must
rekindle the notions of justice, obligation, duty, and service which are being
washed away. We must let people know that they can make a difference and that
they have an obligation to do so. We must make activism a part of people's
everyday lives.

As one of our early supporters is fond of saying, "Keep hope alive."

In solidarity,

Adam Murray
Students for Educational Opportunity

PRESS RELEASE
Sunday, April 12, 1998
CONTACT: ADAM MURRAY 714-364-4370

STUDENTS GAIN SUPPORT FOR DRIVE TO QUALIFY AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INITIATIVE
Students have until June 20 to qualify the Equal Educational Opportunity Initiative

Students leading the initiative campaign to allow affirmative action again in public education announced today that they will continue gathering signatures until June 20. So far, the campaign has collected about 200,000 of the 700,000 signatures they need.

Written in an effort to ensure that public education is accessible to all Californians, the Equal Educational Opportunity Initiative (EEOI) would allow public elementary schools, high schools, community colleges, and universities to use affirmative action programs to ensure equal opportunity, promote diversity, and combat discrimination. The EEOI would reverse the educational
portion of Proposition 209.

The students have been energized by support from U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, Reverend Jesse Jackson, State Senator Teresa Hughes, State Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, Professor Ronald Takaki, The California Democratic Council, California Teachers Association, California Faculty Association, Feminist Majority, NAACP (CA), NOW (CA), ACLU (CA), Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Chinese for Affirmative Action, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), United
Auto Workers (Northern CA), Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, National Lawyers' Guild (SF), San Francisco Bar Association, Alameda County Bar Association, San Francisco La Raza Lawyers' Association, San Diego La Raza Lawyers' Association, Black Women Lawyers' Association of Los Angeles, the Civil Rights Coalition (Northern CA), and many others.

Andrea Guerrero, a law student at UC Berkeley and co-author of the EEOI, sees the breadth of support for the EEOI as an affirmation of diversity. "Our supporters recognize that diversity is one of California's greatest strengths. It invigorates our learning environments, our economy and our culture. Instead of suppressing it in our schools, we should cultivate and celebrate it. We simply can not afford to return to the days of segregation."

Students have been both appalled and energized by the dramatic drops (as high as 66%) in African-American, Latino/Chicano, Native-American, and Filipino students admitted to UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine. Adam Murray, a law student at UC Berkeley and co-author of the EEOI, sees these drops as a call to action. "If we allow our schools to become segregated and we restrict educational opportunities for whole segments of our population, we fail our children and we jeopardize our future. We need affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity in our state and diverse perspectives in our classrooms."

The EEOI is one sentence long and reads, "In order to provide equal opportunity, promote diversity, and combat discrimination in public education, the state may consider the economic background, race, sex, ethnicity, and national origin of qualified individuals."

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