He fought against affirmative action in Michigan and now the head of the American Civil Rights Institute brings his message to a Wisconsin legislative committee.
Make no mistake about it. Ward Connerly is not against affirmative action when it comes to the UW's admissions policy. He's just against solely using race in making those college admission decisions.
Connerly told a packed committee hearing room Tuesday night there's a difference between admitting a student because of race and what he calls socio-economic reasons such as coming from a low income family or not having a parent who went to college or having been a student at a low performing high school. That kind of affirmative action he supports.
And that criteria, along with academics, is included in the so-called holistic admissions policy UW wants to adopt at all campuses.
Connerly is given credit for getting a referendum passed in Michigan that prevents the University there from using race when admitting students.
The special Wisconsin committee will try to come up with legislative recommendations regarding the University of Wisconsin's use of affirmative action in its admissions policy.