Last night there was an affirmative action debate between Ward Connerly, the former University of California regent who opposes affirmative action and Frank Wu, dean of Wayne State University\'s law school. Connerly is the leader of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a proposal that would ban the use of racial and gender preferences in government hiring and University admissions in the state, if approved by voters next fall. This year, proponents of MCRI collected enough signatures to place the initiative on the 2006 ballot. Wu said that when you take into consideration the stereotypes of different minorities, \"such as the Asian \'model minority\' stereotype,\" and the varying quality of different institutions, the standards cannot be equally applied. Affirmative action is needed to counteract stereotypes of women and minorities, Wu said. \"We shouldn\'t characterize affirmative action as a handout,\"? Wu said. \"No one is in favor of discrimination on any basis.\"? Wu added that affirmative action supports the Civil Rights Act of 1964.