Fighting back against recent challenges to affirmative action, a group of Harvard students yesterday displayed their support for the policy by signing petitions and sporting bright-orange ribbons in recognition of National Affirmative Action Awareness Day.

According to the Associated Press, students on more than 50 campuses in 21 states scheduled rallies and other events to support affirmative action. The nationwide show of support was the idea of law students at New York University.

"Although Harvard is not threatened, we wanted to show our solidarity with the other colleges," said Jobe G. Danganan '99, the president of the Minority Students Alliance. "Our goal was to raise awareness about the issue."

In addition to passing out ribbons and fact sheets, students also canvassed support for a California petition to effectively bring back affirmative action to that state's public universities.

But the day's pro-affirmative action demonstrations were followed by an evening discussion in Eliot H se where a broader range of opinions were voiced. About 20 students attended the discussion.

"I find the whole idea of an Affirmative Action Awareness Day disturbing," said C.J. Mahoney '00, president of the Harvard Republican Club. "It assumes that the people who oppose affirmative action in the '90s are the same people who opposed civil rights in the '60s, which is not true."

One focus of the discussion was Tuesday's announcement that admissions of black and Hispanic applicants for next fall's first-year class atCalifornia's most competitive public schools hasfallen considerably. Many attribute these figuresto Proposition 209, a referendum passed inNovember 1996 that banned consideration of race,ethnicity and sex in the public sector.

According to The New York Times, minorityrepresentation at the University ofCalifornia-Berkeley fell from 23.1 percent in 1997to 10.4 percent in 1998. UCLA reported a similardecline, despite seeing more minority applicationsand stronger academic credentials than in previousyears. These figures do not include AsianAmericans, who are not categorized asunderrepresented minorities in California.

"I find these numbers very disturbing," saidEthel B. Branch '01, a California resident and oneof the event organizers.

Mahoney also expressed disappointment at thereport, but he argued the numbers were indicativeof deeper problems, such as decaying publicsecondary and elementary schools.

"We need to separate the means of affirmativeaction with the ends of racial integration. Ithink we all want to achieve the same ends here,"he said. "If you tell colleges that you have toadmit a certain percentage of minorities, youstill will have bad public schools and teacherswho don't want to teach."

Alexander T. Nguyen '98 disagreed. "Affirmativeaction is a balance between the ideal and thereality," he said. "The ideal is that sex, raceand ethnicity don't matter. The reality is thatthey do."

"The reality is that at higher educationinstitutions, African Americans make up 6 percentof the student body. If admissions relied only ontest scores and grades, that number would fall toone or two percent. I don't see how this isimproving race relations," she said.

Those who supported affirmative actiongenerally agreed that despite problems withCalifornia's old affirmative action program, itshould not have been eliminated.

"Mend it, don't end it," said Dionne A. Fraser'99, who is the newly-elected president of theBlack Students Association. "We have to recognizethat there is a problem if you get rid of theprogram completely. Without affirmative action,blacks and Hispanics won't get into selectiveschools."

Students also talked about the role ofdiversity at college.

"It's just as important who you go to schoolwith as it is where you go to school," Frasersaid.

Nguyen agreed. "Merit means a lot more than GPAand tests--it's also the experience you bring," hesaid.

But Mahoney argued that decisions based on racealone do not guarantee diversity. "Just because Iam a white kid from Kansas who lived on a farmdoesn't necessarily mean that I'm going torepresent the farming community," he said.

According to Danganan, a more formal debateabout affirmative action will take place later inthe month.CrimsonJohn F. CoyleDECLINING DIVERSITY: ANGIE K. CHEN'01, TREINA D. FABRE '01 and HECTOR A. VEGA '98discuss affirmative action in Eliot House lastnight.