Forum Sponsors

By offering a "turn-key event," Toward A Fair Michigan (TAFM) aims to maximize the number of sponsors able and willing to host a public discussion of affirmative action preferences in their communities and for their constituencies. TAFM offers full-program coordination: No more searching for speakers! No more struggling to arrange calendars! TAFM offers "one-stop shopping" for qualified speakers on both sides of the issue and moderators committed to a civil exchange. Let us do the coordinating, furnish the speakers, and provide the programming for you.
  

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Speakers Bureau

Toward A Fair Michigan (TAFM) has dedicated itself to opening, spreading, and sustaining public discussion of the effects of, the alternatives to, the justifications for, and the ill consequences of affirmative action preferences. Accordingly, TAFM  has assembled a speakers bureau to facilitate state-wide conversations. The speakers are experienced professionals - experts in the legal and social history of affirmative action - with established commitment to defend or oppose affirmative action preferences, recognized as excellent within their fields, and with demonstrated records of civic responsibility.

Additionally, while the subject is nationally pertinent, the composition of the speakers bureau reflects that this is essentially a Michigan conversation requiring a predominance of Michigan voices. Taking part in the public dialogue will be individuals such as professors William Allen, Daniel Barnhizer, and Brian Kalt from Michigan State University, Howard Schwartz from Oakland University, and Carl Cohen, Elizabeth Secor Anderson, and Thomas Weiskopf from the University of Michigan.

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Principal Advocates                                                                                                      

Serving as the principal proponent of affirmative action is Robert Sedler, J.D., Wayne State University. Serving as the principal exponent of its injustice is William Allen, PhD, MSU. Both Professor Allen and Professor Sedler will personally speak on the question of affirmative action preferences, and will engage other similarly well-qualified individuals in the conversation.

Featured Speakers                                                                                                      

As co-authors of the point/counterpoint book entitled Affirmative Action and Racial Preference - A Debate, Professors of Philosophy Carl Cohen, PhD, U-M, and James P. Sterba, PhD, U-Notre Dame, have a history of publicly debating the subject. Look for them to join the Michigan conversation as their schedules permit.

Carl Cohen, a key figure in the University of Michigan Supreme Court cases, argues that racial preferences are morally wrong - forbidden by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and explicitly banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He also contends that such preferences harm society in general, damage the universities that use them, and undermine the minorities they were intended to serve. James P. Sterba counters that, far from being banned by the Constitution and the civil rights act, affirmative action is actually mandated by law in the pursuit of a society that is racially and sexually just.

                                      --- from Affirmative Action and Racial Preference - A Debate,
                   Carl Cohen & James P. Sterba, 2003 Oxford University Press, Inc.,New York