On Tuesday, Nov. 7, Proposal 2 - Ward Connerly's ballot initiative to ban the use of affirmative action in college admissions, hiring and contracting throughout the state of Michigan - passed by a vote of 58 percent to 42 percent.

There must be no drop in underrepresented minority student enrollment at Michigan universities! The impact of Proposal 2 on minority student admission to our universities is a question of social power, not legal interpretation abstracted from the social struggle. A drop in minority student enrollment in higher education in Michigan is not inevitable. We must stand on the principle that we will not accept a drop in minority enrollment at any Michigan universities.

In California, the failure of the chancellors of the University of California to utilize every legal means available to them to maintain underrepresented minority enrollment has led to a huge drop in the numbers and proportion of black, Hispanic and other underrepresented minority students in the UC system. We cannot allow this to occur in Michigan.

A whole range of university admissions policy changes - from discounting standardized test scores to defending the use of race in admissions to combat the discrimination and bias inherent in Michigan's highly segregated, separate and unequal K-12 education system - can provide the basis for maintaining and even increasing underrepresented minority enrollment at our universities. The passage of Proposal 2 does not have to lead to a drop in black, Hispanic and Native American student enrollment in Michigan universities. What we do will be decisive.

Proposal 2 should never have been placed on the ballot in the first place. The signatures needed to get Proposal 2 on the ballot were obtained through the use of massive, systematic, racially targeted voter fraud. By Any Means Necessary's two-year campaign to expose the voter fraud and to keep Proposal 2 off the ballot because of the voter fraud was the only sure way to defeat Proposal 2.

BAMN's conclusion that Proposal 2 was tainted by racially-targeted fraud was supported by both a federal court decision and the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. The refusal, however, of any other political force in our state to keep Proposal 2 from going forward made its passage extremely likely.

For months, the mainstream media recognized that Proposal 2's placement on the Michigan ballot was based on racially-targeted voter fraud. Nonetheless, virtually every political commentator argued that it should still be placed on the ballot.

Any outcry by civil rights leaders, Democratic politicians or the media over the voter fraud would have stopped Proposal 2 dead in its tracks. When BAMN said loudly that if Proposal 2 went forward on the basis of the voter fraud, defeat was very likely, we were right. Giving a white majority the right to determine black and other minority people's rights in the privacy and secrecy of a voting booth is a recipe for advancing white privilege. Allowing such a vote to take place on the basis of a well-publicized racist scam guarantees a blow against minorities. We cannot allow this to occur again.

Building a new leadership that will fight for and speak out for black and Hispanic communities and all the oppressed is essential right now. We need leaders who understand that the only way to advance the fight for civil rights is to build the new movement on an independent basis. We need leaders who don't just role over and play dead.

Far from settling the question of race relations in Michigan, the passage of Proposal 2 will open up a new phase of the struggle for affirmative action integration and equality throughout Michigan and throughout this nation. Women and black, Hispanic and other minority communities will not accept being relegated to second-class treatment.

Put simply, the response of the new civil rights movement to the passage of Proposal 2 must be that the end of affirmative action in Michigan cannot stand. We will not accept second-class rights and citizenship for black, Hispanic and other minority people and women within our state.

The struggle to defend affirmative action and civil rights doesn't begin or end at the ballot box. We do not accept the idea that white people are entitled to determine, through a vote or by any other means, whether minorities should have equality and civil rights. Had the electorate of the southern states been allowed to vote on whether or not to implement Brown v. Board of Education, Jim Crow would still exist. It took a mass movement to win affirmative action, and it will take a mass movement to defend it.

Maricruz Lopez is an LSA sophomore and a co-chair of the Univeresity chapter of By Any Means Necessary. Liana Mulholland is an Art and Design sophomore and a member of the group.