Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), denies a report published in The Washington Times about the NAACP planning to open an office in Cuba. “We had no discussions with Cuban government officials or citizens regarding a possible NAACP branch in that country during our recent goodwill and trade mission to that nation,” Mfume said in a prepared statement. “Our four-day trip was part of the NAACP’s historical mission to establish people-to-people contacts both inside and outside of the United States.”
Hugh B. Price, president and CEO of the National Urban League, recently announced that he plans to leave the 93-year-old organization by April 3, 2003. Price, who has been the Urban League’s president and CEO since July 1, 1994, says he decided to resign for two reasons. Says Price: “I believe that leaders of national organizations, like the League, should not cling to their positions.” He also feels that “it is time to recalibrate the balance between my professional and personal lives.” Price is on the boards of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Bell Atlantic, and Sears Roebuck & Co.
The Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether universities may favor minorities in their admissions process. The court agreed to hear two cases that challenge the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action system, which favors minorities in admissions to their law school and undergraduate programs. Three white students with good grades and test scores contend that they were denied admission to the university solely because of policies that give minorities extra credit.
In a separate case, two white students who were rejected by Michigan’s undergraduate program also will be heard. A U.S. appeals court has not ruled on their challenge, but both sides in the dispute have urged the high court to take up the undergraduate case along with the one involving the law school.