Brian Price/THE POST Clarence Page, left, and Ward Connerly discuss the issue of affirmative action last night at Grover Center. Students had mixed reactions to the speaker's stances on the issue.

Depending on whom you speak to, affirmative action has either justifiably advanced the opportunities of the oppressed or undone the fight for equal treatment begun in the Civil Rights era.

The controversial topic drew a near full house to Grover Center last night for "Fairness for Whom? A Debate on Affirmative Action," featuring two nationally known speakers.

OU alumnus Clarence Page, a national affairs columnist for The Chicago Tribune and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1988, defended affirmative action.

He said that affirmative action has helped to erase the "last hired, first fired" policies that once were applied to minorities in the workplace.

His opponent, Ward Connerly, helped pass Proposition 209, legislation ending California's affirmative action practices. Connerly is chairman of the California Governor's Foundation and governor-appointed regent of the University of California.

Freshman Marshall James said although his past research has led him to support affirmative action, he came to hear the other side's opinions and arguments.

"I think that it's an issue people don't change their minds toward easily," he said.

Connerly said he wants diversity, but he is concerned about how it is achieved.

"You don't get beyond race by practicing race," Connerly said, "You get beyond race by ignoring race."

But Page said that if you turn a blind eye to race, then you turn a blind eye to racism.

Junior Marques Young said he felt that both speakers did not go into enough depth and thought Connerly's views were unrealistic.

"He's blinded," Young said. "If he believes we're equal now, he's lying to himself, and if he thinks we're heading towards equality, we're a long way from that."

"I saw both sides of the issue," sophomore Un Kyong Ho said. "You have to work on changing people's minds and that's the biggest question."