Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:30am – 6:00 pm University of Southern California, Davidson Center(Conference program) Registration is $35 (students $20), including continental breakfast and a catered luncheon. Checks can be made out to California Association of Scholars, and sent with completed registration form (download here) to: CAS, 144 Bay Heights, Soquel, CA 95073-3026. Passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative in November 2006 by a wide margin (58 to 42) has dramatically accelerated the pace of the movement started by California’s Proposition 209 to end the use of racial and gender preferences in public education and employment. A direct consequence of the Michigan result has been the introduction of five more state initiatives in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Passage of these proposals would signal a decisive change in the outlook for preferences.The three panels will look at the present state of knowledge and opinion about 1) the harm done by preferences to their intended beneficiaries, to higher education and to society at large; 2) the experience so far of those states that have passed anti-preference initiatives; and 3) the outlook for preferences given a changed national climate that has resulted in the 2008 initiatives. Our keynote speaker is Ward Connerly, founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, a national organization that seeks to inform and educate the public about the need to move beyond race and, specifically, racial and gender preferences. Mr. Connerly has gained national attention and respect as an outspoken advocate of equal opportunity for all Americans, regardless of race, sex, or ethnic background. Continue…Editor’s note: While we applaud Mr. Connerly’s stand on this issue, the fact remains that were it not for the Boasian corrupted / liberal environment in which non-white affirmative action recipients work and study, their relative “progress” — in most cases– would never have been what it is purported to be.