The man who chaired the successful campaign to end state sponsored race-based affirmative action in California is trying to do the same in Michigan.

Ward Connerly, a University of California regent, will hold a news conference today in that state to kick off plans for a Michigan ballot initiative that would end race-based affirmative action in university admissions and state hiring.

His efforts follow the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month that upheld the University of Michigan's practice of considering race as a factor in admissions. That decision deeply disappointed Connerly.

"It's pretty clear that neither the president nor the Congress nor Supreme Court has the stomach for putting us on a path of living out the true meaning of what the 1964 Civil Rights Act says," he said from Michigan.

"I want to force the issue of whether our society is going to be divided into an assortment of racial and ethnic groups or whether we're going to be one people trying to respect the fact that we may have some differences."

This is just one of many tactics Connerly is using to achieve his goal of a "color-blind society." He has proposed a resolution for next week's UC regents' meeting that would prohibit the university from funding any activities targeted to students of a specific race, ethnic or sexual orientation such as graduation ceremonies or freshman orientation.

And, he has an initiative on California's March ballot that would ban the state from collecting racial data.

Connerly championed Proposition 209, which ended race-based affirmative action in state admissions and hiring after California voters approved the measure in 1996.

Supporters of affirmative action say his latest efforts will only harm people of color.

"For some reason, he wants to undermine the educational opportunities for so many students in this country and I think that's a real shame," said UC Berkeley senior Anu Joshi, a member of the California Statewide Affirmative Action Coalition. "He has the rhetoric of creating a 'color-blind society' ... The problem is you can't eliminate race until you eliminate racism and it's easy to forget that, I think."

If Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Coalition in Sacramento, succeeds in eliminating race-based affirmative action in Michigan, it will be the second time outside California. He successfully spearheaded a similar campaign in Washington state in 1998

Connerly says he has a lot of support in Michigan for a November 2004 ballot initiative. Organizers, he said, would need to gather signatures from 8 percent of registered voters in the state's last gubernatorial election.

The initiative would strongly resemble Prop. 209, although it may include a provision that would undercut a popular argument used by advocates of affirmative action. They sometimes justify racial preferences in part by arguing that universities give legacy students -- those with a relative who is an alumnus -- preferential consideration. The Michigan initiative may ban the practice of giving preference to legacy students.

"If you believe in the principle of judging each student as an individual, it's hard to reconcile giving them points because their ancestor went to the university," Connerly said.

In California, he is intent on preventing UC from using any money for non-academic race specific activities such as black or Chicano graduation ceremonies, which he says fracture the student body along racial lines.

Joshi countered that activities targeted to specific racial or ethnic groups are vital and an appropriate use of university funds. "They create a sense of community," she said. "It's easy to get lost in the numbers here at Berkeley."