In keeping with past practice, the AFT has come out in strong support of affirmative action and policies that have as their goal diversity and access.

At its executive council meeting in Florida in January, union leaders passed a resolution directing the AFT to file an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the University of Michigan's affirmative action plan. Just before the AFT leaders took this action, the Bush administration announced its position against the plan.

The AFT resolution notes that Michigan's policy adheres to the guidelines laid out in University of California v. Bakke,  the Supreme Court decision that has shaped affirmative action policy in the United States since 1978 and which the AFT has endorsed. The "AFT believes that meaningful diversity in the student body in our nation's colleges and universities provides a richer educational environment for all students," the resolution states. It supports the UM policy, in which an applicant's race is considered as just one of many factors, but gets extra weight in order to help the university achieve its goal of a diverse student body.

The AFT executive council also passed a resolution supporting equitable treatment in how immigrants are charged for tuition. It calls for legislative efforts to ensure that state policies allow immigrants who reside in the state to pay the same in-state tuition rate as other residents.

The resolution notes that the rate of immigration to the United States is at its highest since the influx of the early 1900s. Many of these immigrants came as children to our shores and have spent almost their entire lives here. Even those who are more recent arrivals seek to participate fully in the economic, cultural and political life here as legal U.S. residents.

Recently, states with high immigrant populations--such as California, New York and Texas--have created policies or passed legislation that allows them to waive the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 so as to charge immigrant residents at the lower state-resident tuition. The AFT is now on record as supporting that approach, particularly in states with high numbers immigrants who are here legally, are in the process of legalizing their status or who have expressed willingness to go through the process when they are able.  [Barbara McKenna]

[January 23, 2003]