Regardless of Michigan Decision, Military to Remain "Highly Qualified and Diverse"
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 6/16/2003
The nation's military "will continue fielding the best soldiers and performance by actively recruiting and training an officer corps that is highly qualified and diverse," says a retired three-star general and five-year superintendent of West Point.
In a letter to the National Review, Dan Christman, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, criticizes the arguments of a lawyer for plaintiffs who have attacked the University of Michigan's affirmative action programs in the Supreme Court.
Military leaders, including Norman Schwarzkopf, Bud McFarlane, Joe Hoar, and Gordon Sullivan, filed an amicus brief in the Michigan cases in support of the university.
Americans for a Fair Chance (AFC), a project of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCREF), has been organizing this support for affirmative action policies and programs, in recognition of the fact that America's campuses, workforce, and national security benefit by recruiting men and women from diverse races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
AFC is convening a forum on "The Military and Affirmative Action" to be held at the Georgetown University Law School on June 18, 2003, to examine how the military developed successful affirmative action programs and what is likely to happen if the Supreme Court decides to change current law.
A panel of legal experts will review the legal history of affirmative action, the role affirmative action policies have played especially for changes in the military academies, what the Supreme Court is likely to do, and what impact that decision will have on the nation's military academies.
