After Grutter: Affirmative Action and Our Compelling Interests in Diversity

Saturday, October 4, 2003
9:00am - 5:00pm
UO School of Law
Knight Law Center
1515 Agate Street
Eugene, Oregon 97403

[Event Description][Summit Schedule] [Participant Bios][Readings & Links]
[Directions & Information] [Registration]

PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT EVENT

• Attend keynote given by Oregon State Supreme Court Justice Paul J. DeMuniz
• Hear from experts in law, business, and higher education about the future of affirmative action and other diversity-building efforts
• Participate in special sessions on these topics, along with other leaders in Oregon's legal, education, business, government and civic communities
• Oregon State Bar members: CLE diversity credit pending for this event
• Take valuable information back with you - Summit Handbooks and Videos are available for purchase
  

(CODAC) invites members of Oregon's legal, education, business, government and civic communities to participate in this important one-day Summit on the University of Oregon campus.

The Supreme Court's affirmation of public universities' "compelling interest in diversity" challenges us to look what we do now and what we could do to ensure that students in higher education today and tomorrow will be equipped to lead in the 21st century.

It also encourages collaboration to meet shared interests in the benefits of diversity and preparation for the changes and challenges ahead.

The Census Bureau projects that one-half of the nation's population will claim a non-white racial or ethnic identity by 2050. Demographic changes in the Pacific Northwest reflect this movement and highlight the relevance of other aspects of our diversity.

While affirmative action programs help us recruit the best possible students, colleagues, managers and leaders, we must work together in new ways if we are to reap the full benefits of our diversity.

As new community participants join our student bodies, organizations and customer bases, we need networks and resources attuned to the opportunities and challenges that lay before us. We must design and carry out studies, programs and policies that ensure insightful leadership and positive outcomes for all.

We hope you will join us in supplying leadership, for this event and beyond. Our goal is to facilitate stronger networks for diversity between CODAC, the University of Oregon and our many stakeholders. Our plan is that this gathering may begin a series of collaborations in planning, research, program development and information exchange.

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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

8:30-9:00 Summit Registration

9:00-10:30 Keynote Address: Hon. Paul J DeMuniz, Justice, Oregon State Supreme Court

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:30 Leaders' Roundtable - "Why is Diversity a 'Compelling Interest'?"

Analysts from government, business, K-12 and higher education, law, and media will focus on why diversity is a "compelling interest," and what this means to newly diversifying regions and communities. Roundtable session participants to include:

• Samuel Brooks Chair, Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs
• Samuel Bryant President, Oregon Uniting
• John Lenssen Education and Equity Specialist, Oregon Department of Education
• Angel Lopez Partner, Squires and Lopez LLP, Portland
• Debra Merskin Associate Professor, University of Oregon School of Journalism & Communication
• Liani Jean Heh Reeves Staff Attorney, National Crime Victim Law Institute, Portland

12:30-1:30 Lunch (on your own)

1:30 - 3:15 Experts' Panel - "The New Directions of Diversity after Grutter"

Legal experts, affirmative action officers, higher education administrators and public officials assess the Supreme Court's recent affirmative action decisions and discuss their broader implications. Panelists to include:

• Keith Aoki Professor, University of Oregon School of Law
• Tomas Hulick Baiza Assistant Director of Admissions, Multicultural Recruitment, University of Oregon
• Garrett Epps Professor, University of Oregon School of Law
• Ryan Hagemann Assistant Attorney General, Oregon Department of Justice
• Peggy C. Ross Director, State of Oregon Office of Affirmative Action
• Yvette Webber-Davis Director, Oregon University System Diversity Planning and Special Projects

3:15 - 3:30 Break

3:30 - 4:30 Breakout Sessions - "Where Do We Go From Here?"

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON PARTICIPANTS

Hon. Paul J. De Muniz - Keynote Address
Justice, Oregon State Supreme Court
The Honorable Justice De Muniz began serving on the Oregon Supreme Court in January 2001. He is the first Hispanic member of the state's Supreme Court. Before his election to the Supreme Court, De Muniz served on the Oregon Court of Appeals for 10½ years and was the Presiding Judge of Department One of that court from 1997 to 2000. He has served on the Judicial Fitness and Disability Commission, the Supreme Court Access to Justice for All Committee, and chaired the Committee to Implement Recommendations made by the Oregon Supreme Court Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the Judicial System. In 1996, the Implementation Committee published a widely read and used report entitled "A Commitment to Fairness." Justice De Muniz contributed two chapters to Immigrants in Courts, University of Washington Press (1999) a reference book now used by attorneys and judges throughout the United States. In 1998, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen appointed Justice De Muniz to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. While serving on that committee, Justice De Muniz visited military installations and U. S. troops around the world reporting to the Secretary of Defense on issues affecting women in military service. Justice De Muniz is a graduate of Portland State University and Willamette University College of Law. He is a Vietnam veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force, and has held positions in private law practice and public defense. Justice De Muniz is involved with the North Salem High mock trial team, the Willamette University Board of Visitors, and several youth athletic programs.

Keith Aoki, J.D. - Experts' Panel
Professor, University of Oregon School of Law
Professor Aoki received his B.A. in 1978 from Wayne State; his M.A. from Hunter in 1986, and his J.D. from Harvard in 1990. He also received LL.M. degrees from Harvard and Wisconsin in 1993. Aoki served on the editorial board of the Harvard Environmental Law Review (1988-89) and on the editorial staff of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review (1987-88). He then practiced law for two years at a leading Boston firm, Hale & Dorr. Aoki's most recent article, "A Tale of Three Cities: Thoughts on Asian American Electoral and Political Power after 2000," appears in the UCLA Asian Pacific American Law Journal (Spring 2002). He is also currently focusing on the civil rights implications of the Bush Administration's war on homeland terror.

Tomas Hulick Baiza - Experts' Panel
Assistant Director of Admissions, Multicultural Recruitment, University of Oregon
In addition to his responsibilities with the University of Oregon's Office of Admissions, Mr. Baiza is a Doctoral Student in the University of Oregon's College of Education. Baiza worked in the University of Michigan Office of Admissions from 1999 through 2001. Baiza holds master's degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Indiana, and a bachelor's degree from San José State University. He regularly makes presentations and gives talks on race and ethnicity issues in a university admission context, and has spoken at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) on the topics of white privilege and being a "white ally" on a predominantly-white campus. Mr. Baiza also organizes "Connections," a nine-session, full-day UO orientation and campus tour program. This program is designed to bolster recruitment and retention of students of color and first-generation college students.

Samuel Brooks - Leaders' Roundtable
President and Chair, Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs
Mr. Brooks is the President and Chair of the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, the organization which he founded with eight members in 1987. Today, OAME is one of the nation's premier non-profit organizations in providing outstanding services to minority, women and emerging small businesses. OAME won the 2000 Vision Award for Excellence given by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and its membership has grown to more than 600 African-American, Asian-American, Native-American, Hispanic-American and European-American owned businesses. OAME is now housed in the "OAME Geneva and Paul Knauls" Business and Entrepreneurial Center, a 40,000-square-foot business campus with 30 tenants, meeting space and staff facilities. This center offers businesses and entrepreneurs technical assistance, mentoring, access to capital, administrative support, business incubation and networking opportunities. Mr. Brooks previously served on and chaired the National Advisory Board for Small Business Development Center from 1986 to 1989.

Samuel Bryant - Leaders' Roundtable
President, Oregon Uniting
Mr. Bryant is a founder and current President of Oregon Uniting, a Portland-based grassroots coalition working to advance racial justice and racial healing throughout the state of Oregon. It was Oregon Uniting's founders and advisors who organized the 1999 Oregon Day of Acknowledgement, a statewide event to build racial equity in Oregon and to acknowledge the state's history of racial injustice. Oregon Uniting hosts facilitated intergroup dialogues and offers facilitator trainings throughout the state. It also recovers and marks aspects of the state's racial history. Oregon Uniting received startup funding from the Hope in the Cities Project via a Kellogg Foundation grant. Mr. Bryant is also the owner of Red Eagle Gallery.

Garrett Epps, J.D. - Experts' Panel
Professor, University of Oregon School of Law
Professor Garrett Epps is a nationally recognized expert in the field of constitutional law. He is also a former staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of two novels. His most recent book, To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial, concerns Oregon's famous peyote case. It was one of three finalists for the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award in 2002. Professor Epps has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, and The New York Review of Books, and served as articles editor of Law and Contemporary Problems. Epps joined the UO law faculty after a clerkship with the Honorable John O. Butzner Jr. of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia. He has been a visiting associate professor at Boston College of Law and Duke Law School.

Ryan Hagemann, J.D. - Experts' Panel
Assistant Attorney General, Oregon Department of Justice
Mr. Hagemann holds a B.A. in Politics from Whitman College and a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law. Before attending law school, Hagemann worked for Whitman's Office of Admission, serving on its Board for four years. Following his graduation from law school in 2001, he joined the Oregon Department of Justice Honors Program, working for both the Education and Labor & Employment Sections. Currently, Hagemann is a member of the Oregon DOJ's Labor & Employment Section. He is the author of "Diversity as a Compelling Interest in Higher Education: Does Bakke Survive Recent Affirmative Action Jurisprudence?" and has spoken on race-conscious decision making in higher education for organizations such as the Oregon Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The views he expresses are his own, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the state of Oregon or any state agency.

John Lenssen - Leaders' Roundtable
Education and Equity Specialist, Oregon Department of Education
In his role as Education and Equity Specialist for the State Department of Education, Mr. Lenssen's areas of responsibility include violence prevention, safe and drug-free schools, civil rights, cultural competency, conflict resolution, training and staff development and community collaboration. Lenssen chairs the State's Violence Prevention Summer Institute and its Partners for Children and Families Cultural Competency Training Committee, and is the team leader of the Department of Education's Access and Equity Team. He has also chaired the Department's Quality and Diverse Task Force. Lenssen has been an administrator, professor, and counselor with both the Educational Opportunities Program at Oregon State University and the Office of Minority Affairs at the University of Washington. He currently holds adjunct professorships through Oregon State University, Pacific University and the University of Oregon, where he teaches classes on violence prevention, racial and sexual harassment, cross-cultural counseling and intercultural communication. Lenssen has also taught in community college and Head Start programs.

Angel Lopez, J.D. - Leaders' Roundtable
Partner, Squires and Lopez LLP
Angel Lopez is a partner with Squires and Lopez in Portland. Lopez served as the President of the Oregon State Bar in 2002, and continues to serve as Legal Advisor to the Mexican Consulate in Portland. Mr. Lopez holds a degree in Psychology from Occidental College and a Law degree from Willamette College of Law. In his career, Lopez has twice chaired the Commission on Hispanic Affairs for Oregon. He has also served as Director of the Oregon State Bar's Affirmative Action Program and as President of the Multnomah County Library System. Lopez was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Mexican immigrants, and was the first Hispanic to hold the position of Oregon State Bar President. Mr. Lopez and his law partner and wife, Ms. Wendy Squires, practice plaintiff's personal injury and criminal defense law.

Debra Merskin, Ph.D. - Leaders' Roundtable
Associate Professor, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication
Debra Merskin co-chairs the Executive Committee of UO's Center on Diversity and Community, and chairs its Research Committee. Professor Merskin holds a Ph.D. from Syracuse University and specializes in the field of media dependency theory. Merskin's research interests are in the representation of women and minorities in the media, historical studies, and the social influences of the media. She received the School of Journalism's Marshall Award for Innovative Teaching in 1997. Her professional advertising experience includes positions as media director at Ellis, Diaz/Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhart, at Cedar Hames & Associates, and at W.B. Doner & Co.

Liani Jean Heh Reeves, J.D. - Leaders' Roundtable
Staff Attorney, National Crime Victim Law Institute, Portland, Oregon
For the past two years, Ms. Reeves has served as Assistant Attorney General for the Oregon Department of Justice Trial Division Special Litigation Unit. Currently Reeves co-chairs the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association and chairs the Communications Committee of the Diversity Section of the Oregon State Bar. She is also a founding board member and the current Chair of Public Affairs of the Korean American Citizens League, an organization that promotes the civil rights of Oregon's Korean American community members. Reeves received her J.D. and B.A. degrees from Willamette University, where she developed and organized a major conference entitled "Race, Culture, and the Law 2001: The Path to Justice." This conference was the first event to qualify for Oregon State Bar diversity CLE credits. While serving as a student member of Willamette Law School's Minority Affairs Committee, Reeves compiled and drafted two important reports. The Oregon Legal Community: Identifying the Problem and Recommending Solutions focuses on the experiences of people of color working in the Oregon legal community, and The Minority Experience is a compilation of incidents that law students of color faced while at Willamette. Ms. Reeves is a self-described lifelong activist for education and awareness on diversity issues, who focuses on raising awareness on minority issues while at the same time advocating for cross-community alliances. As an Asian American woman who has faced stereotypes, prejudices, and racism throughout her years in Oregon, she has developed a clear sense of how much progress we, as a state and as a community, have to achieve.

Peggy C. Ross - Experts' Panel
Director, State of Oregon Office of Affirmative Action
As the new State Director of Affirmative Action, Peggy Ross works closely with all state agencies to assess their recruitment, placement, promotion and training practices with respect to affirmative action goals, and acts as a liaison between the Governor's Office and several boards and commissions. For the past decade, Ms. Ross has been the principal of P.C. Ross Group, a consulting firm that specializes in business development, diversity training and outreach services. In 1994, Governor Barbara Roberts tabbed Ms. Ross to chair the Oregon State Compliance Advisory Panel for Small Business Stationary Source Technical and Environmental Compliance, and Portland Mayor Vera Katz appointed Ross to the Fair Contracting Employment Forum in 1996. She has worked for public and private entities in the design and implementation of programs to increase working partnerships with M/W/ESBs. Ross is certified in Diversity Training by the Society for Human Resource Management in Washington, D.C., and by the American Contract Compliance Association Certification Program in Dallas, Texas and Minneapolis, Minnesota. She worked previously with the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, and received the U.S. Small Business Administration's Minority Enterprise Development Achievement Award in 1990. In addition to these many responsibilities, Ms. Ross is a consultant to the Office of Minority, Women & Emerging Small Businesses and a Continuing Education Instructor at Portland Community College.

Yvette Webber-Davis - Experts' Panel
Director, Oregon University System Diversity Planning and Special Projects

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RECOMMENDED READINGS & LINKS

United States Supreme Court decision (slip opinion) in Grutter v. Bollinger (02-241)

United States Supreme Court decision (slip opinion) in Gratz v. Bollinger (02-516)

Amicus Briefs in Support of University of Michigan in Grutter and Gratz

Reaffirming Diversity: A Legal Analysis of the University of Michigan Affirmative Action Cases. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University

Preserving Diversity in Higher Education: A Manual on Admissions Policies and Procedures after the University of Michigan Decisions. Chapters 1 & 2. Equal Justice Society

Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger: The University of Michigan Affirmative Action Admissions Cases - Online Symposium, Jurist, University of Pittsburgh School of Law

The Compelling Need for Diversity in Higher Education

American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Resource Guide for Diversity in Higher Education

Race, Gender and Affirmative Action: Resource Page for Teaching
Professor Elizabeth Anderson, Philosophy and Women's Studies, University of Michigan

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DIRECTIONS AND INFORMATION

DISABILITY ACCOMODATIONS
All Summit sessions will take place in wheelchair-accessible rooms, either on the First or Second floors (accessible by elevator) of the UO Law School. For any accommodation requests related to a disability, please inform CODAC as soon as possible and no later than September 20.

DIRECTIONS
The UO School of Law is located in the Knight Law Center, 1515 Agate Street, Eugene, Oregon 97403. It is on the corner of Agate Street and E 15th Avenue.

From North of Eugene: From I-5 South, take Exit 194B onto 126/I-105 West. Take Exit 2, keep left and follow the signs to the UO. Proceed in the left lane over the Ferry Street Bridge, exiting onto Broadway, which becomes Franklin Boulevard. Follow Franklin Boulevard to Agate Street. Turn right onto Agate Street.

From South of Eugene: From I-5 North, take Exit 192. Merge onto Franklin Boulevard. After merging, get in the left lane and follow Franklin Boulevard to Agate Street. Turn left onto Agate Street.

From West of Eugene: Take 126 East until it becomes W 11th Avenue. Follow W 11th Avenue to Garfield Street and turn left. Take Garfield to W 7th Avenue and turn right. Get in the right lane and follow Seventh Avenue until it becomes Franklin Boulevard. Get in the right lane and follow Franklin Boulevard to Agate Street. Turn right onto Agate Street.

From East of Eugene: Take 126/I-105 West. Take Exit 2, keep left and follow the signs to the UO. Proceed in the left lane over the Ferry Street Bridge, exiting onto Broadway, which becomes Franklin Boulevard. Follow Franklin Boulevard to Agate Street.

FOOD
Morning and afternoon snacks and beverages are complimentary for Summit attendees. For lunch breaks, several restaurants, eateries and stores are located on E 13th Avenue, E 18th Avenue, E 19th Avenue, Franklin Boulevard, and Willamette Street. All are within walking or short driving distance (3-5 minutes) of the UO Law School, and most offer a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare.

PARKING
Summit participants may park in any UO parking lot, free of charge, anytime on Saturday, October 4. Metered street parking, either under the jurisdiction of UO or the City of Eugene, is enforced on Saturdays until 6:00p. Residential street parking is also available near the UO Law School. Please observe all posted signs and other parking restrictions.

OVERNIGHT LODGING
We anticipate that the Summit will attract participants from around the state. Should you seek overnight accommodations in Eugene, the following inns, hotels and B&Bs are located within walking or short driving distance of the UO Law School.

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