CAP wins one Against Segregation

Golden, Colo., August 3, 2004 — Today, under pressure from a civil rights coalition led by the Independence Institute’s Campus Accountability Project (“CAP”), the University of Colorado surrendered to demands that CU end a racially-segregated section of “School and Society” in the College of Education.

“Fifty years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, CU learned a valuable lesson today,” said CAP Director Jessica Corry. “Segregation was wrong then, it is wrong now, and it will always be wrong.”

CU had sent an email to students on July 27, 2004 advertising one section of the class as reserved for “students of color” or first-generation college students. Lawyer Robert J. Corry, Jr. demanded that CU open each section of the class to all students regardless of skin color, or be sued in Federal Court.

After initially defending the segregated section of the class, CU capitulated today, sending an email to students explaining that the earlier email was not correct, that the course is in fact open to all students, that “the language in the e-mail which restricted enrollment exclusively on the basis of race was in error and is against university policy,” and apologizing for any misunderstanding.

Robert Corry was pleased with CU’s decision, saying “this is a victory for equal protection and civil rights. The schoolhouse door should not be locked to any student on the basis of skin color.”

The “School and Society” course, ironically, satisfies the University’s graduation requirement imposed on CU students that they take one course in the area of “diversity.”