Students voiced their opinions about affirmative action in university admissions and the media's coverage of the issue in a heated debate last night that attracted a vocal and opinionated crowd.

The debate began as a panel discussion with four speakers. Two speakers were in favor of the policy, while the other two argued negative aspects of the issue.

Shanta Driver, the keynote speaker, represented BAMN, or the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. Driver is the national director for United for Equality Affirmative Action, a group that is involved with the student defendants in the University of Michigan Law School case. Sitting on the pro-affirmative action side of the panel, she spoke firmly about the reasons why the program is in place and should remain an active part of society.

"If affirmative action is stopped, we will return to the dark days where college campuses were almost all white," she said. Driver went on to say school systems and class distinctions are problems that call for affirmative action as a solution.

Students who have foundations in inner-city school systems struggle throughout their lives to close GPA gaps between themselves and white students, Driver said. She also fiercely discussed the injustice of standardized testing systems, saying that the tests specifically use questions that favor white students. The results show a nine point difference between black students and their white counterparts, she said.

"We need to recognize the truth that racial discrimination structures society," she said. "We have two choices -- we can break down the discrimination and unite, or slide back and pretend it doesn't exist."

Jason Covener (non-degree conditional undergraduate) quickly defended the anti-affirmative action side of the issue. "There's a term for [your view on this issue]", he said. "It's called racial determinism, and it's ironic that the civil rights activists have adopted the very thing they were once fighting against."

Covener's tone became more critical as he countered the points Driver made about the writers of the SATs. "There is not some smoky room somewhere where creators of SAT's and LSATs take out all of the questions black people are good at," he said. "It sounds like a bad comic book."

As the crowd made their disagreement known, he continued, saying that minorities who have struggled through schools will be better prepared for the real world. "What are you going to do when you have [a case in] an all-white court room?" he asked. "Will you ask for an affirmative action jury so you can win your case?" Covener then offered a "real solution" quoting Martin Luther King Jr. "Judge by the content of your character, not the color of your skin."

Dan Heist (senior-speech communication) offered questions to the audience about the need for a real solution. "We need real solutions," he said. "Is affirmative action a real solution?"