Affirmative action gives needed redress

My colleague John Staddon is correct: Race and gender have nothing to do with competence in chemistry or cell biology. What he fails to recall in his continuing campaign against affirmative action is that this truth was ignored for much of this university's history, which is a tale of several decades of exclusion, segregation and exploitation of minorities. I lived through the days of struggle that led to change and thus can appreciate the desire of those victimized by those practices to see redress. Affirmative action is intended as that: It does not substitute race or gender for intellectual qualifications, but it does, I believe properly, give special consideration to the children of the victims.

Peter Klopfer

Professor

Department of Zoology