Affirmative Action activist Ward Connerly cancelled his controversial appearance for the SRJC Affirmative Action debate on Feb. 6 leaving the Arts and Lectures Committee to scramble and refocus the event.

“No reason was given as to why he couldn’t attend. He was not able to make the time, and he notified us the Thursday prior to the lecture. We asked his office if they could send another speaker, and they couldn’t find one and only when we couldn’t find anyone Ajuan Mance decided to go ahead with the lecture,” said Karen Petersen, chairperson of the Arts and Lectures Committee.

Newman auditorium filled with people of all ages, waiting for the debate between Connerly and Ajuan Mance, only to be disappointed to hear the debate was cancelled.  Chatter among SRJC faculty and staff spread with frustrations when they learned Connerly cancelled.

Instead, Mance took the stage and fed the audience information on the positives of Affirmative Action. Mance drove home her point of a need for complete change in the college admissions process through explaining three bullet points: qualified students, meritocracy and affirmative action.

“I hoped they [students] think about affirmative action for preference for people of color and for a change in the way the admission process works,” Mance said.

She advocates admission process changes in which students who are best equipped and will work hard regardless of their test scores.

A common fear of affirmative action is: “A person of privilege, particularly a person of racial privilege, has lost their rightful place in an institution to a less qualified person of color,” Mance said. “That is the phrase I hear often.” That is the common fear of affirmative action.

Due to Connerly’s absence, Mance covered all the myths of affirmative action, arguing for affirmative action and a change in the admissions process.

Mance said the current admissions processes are not helpful to students. Some college admissions procedures have not been developed because administrators have yet to define who is basically qualified to do the work and whom to admit according to certain measures of smartness.

“Main measure of smartness [through things like SAT and ACT] is not as good as predicting success as they have been good at keeping the status quo,” Mance said.

Mance discredited one of Connerly’s possible points that the admissions process needs to be on merit alone. “If you ask someone what a meritocracy is they’ll say: everyone getting what they deserve based on their hard work; but what we are getting and are comfortable with in practice is very different.”

Mance said Americans are ambivalent about wealth.  Your future is somewhat like inheritance and those with better inheritance will always have a better life despite how long and hard people work. “They don’t reap the same rewards,” she said.

Simply keeping Prop 209 and not changing the admissions process doesn’t mean our system will be based on merit alone. Mance argues that the things left of 209 are those privileged economically still receive special treatment.

American society wasn’t built to function on meritocracy. “Our current system in which some students are born into communities that are isolated and impoverished while some are born into communities that are wealthy with easy access to outstanding schools, libraries, museums and medical care and all are judged by the same criteria. This very notion discredits the values of meritocracy,” Mance said.

The fear of affirmative action and quotas is unnecessary because quotas were considered unconstitutional in 1970.

Mance wants to promote quality in our admissions process. Through affirmative action, she said, both equality and quality would be achieved.

Audience members seemed pleased after the initial disappointment of Connerly’s absence. “It was refreshing to know that some people are still fighting for rights,” SRJC student Jacquelyn Burns said.

Other students  enjoyed the lecture as well. “[She was] really interesting, and she spoke to the heart of how hard it is because even some people who work really hard don’t get a chance,“ audience member and SRJC student Ninci Lopez said.