A bake sale at Utah State University that was meant as a protest against affirmative action on college campuses angered many minority students.

The USU College Republicans last week held the sale in which whites were charged $2 for a cookie while less money was required of minorities, the same cookie being discounted to as little as 25 cents for African-American females.

Similar sales have been held throughout the year by college Republican groups at schools such as Penn State, Berkeley, Florida State University and the University of Washington. Reactions to the sales have been mixed.

The problem at USU, where about 5 percent of students are minorities, wasn't so much with the message — considered by critics of the sale as "freedom of speech" — but rather with how it was delivered.

"They had the audacity to say all kinds of stuff," said Mexican student Carol Cabanillas, who described the sale as a day of "yelling and arguing." She said she was singled out, laughed at and told by at least one person selling cookies, even after she said she wasn't interested: "But we have this sale going on just for you."

Cabanillas talked to other students who also felt they were the targets of ridicule, and now a new group has been formed called Aggies for Education of Affirmative Action. That group, the College Republicans and others have scheduled a meeting next month to debate the subject.

One of the discussion topics will be the history of affirmative action, a term that emerged during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Both presidents played a part in establishing efforts to end discrimination by the government and its contractors based on race, creed, color, gender and national origin.

"The attempt now really is to do something very professional, very formal," said Juan N. Franco, USU vice president over student services. "I don't think they set out to insult anybody."

The scheduled meeting fits right in with what fellow student and USU College Republicans chairman Gabriel White had hoped would happen as a result of the sale.

"It gets it out in the spotlight," he said.

White and others approached people to speak out against affirmative action, but he didn't think anyone was "rude."

If anyone was personally attacked by someone from his group, which has more than 200 members, then "out front, we would apologize for that," White added.

White is against affirmative action because he says it tries to solve the issue of racial inequality by creating more racial inequality.

Angie Hammond, diversity vice president for Associated Students of USU, said it's possible that only supporters of White's stance, not College Republicans members, were responsible for targeting minorities. She is half Polynesian and said she didn't feel like anyone was being condescending when she was approached.

Much of the controversy surrounding affirmative action issues at USU is likely the result of misinformation about what affirmative action is really about, said Sue Gunter-Schlesinger, assistant executive vice president for affirmative action and diversity at USU.

She said there are no "quotas" or formal affirmative action programs at USU.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com