Ward Connerly always received Cs on his report cards. But the C never indicated his scholarly status.

It stood for "colored."

The same issue of skin color that was used against him should have no place in affirmative action, Connerly told a crowd of about 100 last night in 112 Kern Building.

"It's time to give people in this nation freedom from race," he said.

Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, said all people are entitled to equal treatment under the U.S. Constitution, and affirmative action does not supercede that.

"The government ought to be as blind to the color of my skin as it is to religion," he said. "Treating people differently clearly has to go."

He said the government's job is to help people who need assistance, but race doesn't necessarily determine who needs help. He suggested using only income as a factor for deciding who deserves aid.

Accordingly, Connerly also said racial classifications, such as those on university applications and governmental forms, should be eliminated. Classifications based on race began in the era of slavery and Jim Crow laws, he added.

"The government has no business asking its citizens, 'What's your race?' " he said.

Connerly also said students should not be accepted to colleges based solely on grade point averages and SAT scores. He said accessibility to honors classes should be considered as well, because students without the opportunity to take advanced classes cannot earn the 4.2 averages that some of their high school peers had at graduation.

Connerly also said he suspects there is a 95 percent chance the U.S. Supreme Court case will rule against the University of Michigan in a current case for using racial preferences.

He also said it is a particular institution's responsibility to break down comfort zones with regard to race.

Jacqueline Duson (junior-Latin-American studies) said that to her, receiving extra admissions points because of her race is not treating her differently, but allowing her to have the same opportunities as everyone else.

She questioned Connerly's position to abolish race as a factor in admissions while wanting to include economic factors.

"I really think you're a hypocrite," Duson told Connerly.

But Connerly said their opinions simply differed.

"It's all discrimination to me," he said.

Tara Burnham (freshman-public relations) asked Connerly how he expects more black students to attend Penn State if affirmative action is abolished.

"A white person ... can't go and meet a black person if they are not here," she said.

Connerly said it is important for admissions officers to judge people as individuals, not by the proportion of students of a particular race at a university.

"I think it's important for us to have certain rules that govern our society," he said. "[Affirmative action] certainly doesn't override equal treatment under the law."

Michael Clauser (sophomore-philosophy and religious studies) said he read that when black people are asked to use three words to identify themselves, most list "black." But white people don't typically name "white" as a defining characteristic, he said.

Clauser asked Connerly how society can get beyond using "black" as such an identifying characteristic.

Connerly said the racial classifications he suggested abolishing earlier in his speech are some of the things that encourage that type of labeling.

"Society forces us often to make that the most important feature of our being," he said. He added that events such as his lecture are one way of reducing that problem.