Imagine Fund will offer race and gender-based scholarships in response to 2006 anti-affirmative action law

Kalamazoo Gazette
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
BY PAULA M. DAVIS

KALAMAZOO -- A new organization called The Imagine Fund plans to offer college scholarships beginning in fall 2009 that will consider an academically qualified student's race, gender or other characteristics.
Considering race or gender in awarding a scholarship is a practice that in late 2006 was banned at the state's public universities and colleges.
The private nonprofit -- established in 2007 and now beginning its first public fundraising campaign -- was formed in response to that voter-approved measure outlawing some forms of affirmative action in Michigan.
``The Imagine Fund was conceived, quite frankly, because a small group of us were very concerned, angry, annoyed at the passage of Proposal 2,'' Nanette Reynolds, The Imagine Fund president, said Tuesday in a meeting with Kalamazoo Gazette staff.
Organizers worry Proposal 2 limits access to higher education for some and ultimately hurts the state.
``At a time when the economy is really suffering is not the time to pull back on financial aid for qualified students,'' said Diane M. Purgiel, the organization's vice president of development.
Members of the founding board of directors include former state officials, such as David Hollister, former director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Its ``honorary adviser'' is Mark Murray, one-time president of Grand Valley State University and now Meijer Inc.'s chief executive. [To read the entire article, go to: http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-30/1219243809214310.xml&coll=7 ]