UC drafts symbolic shift on admissions
UC drafts symbolic shift on admissions
Regents' goal: Be race-neutral but welcoming
BY BECKY BARTINDALE Mercury News
Thursday, May 10, 2001
Acknowledging that controversy over affirmative action may have damaged the university's reputation, a powerful coalition of regents is backing a symbolic move to abandon the University of California's historic 1995 ban on racial preferences. Their proposal would not reinstate affirmative action in UC hiring and admissions. Instead, it would replace the regents' 6-year-old policies with language simply affirming that the system will follow the state constitution -- as amended in 1996 by Proposition 209 -- and treat all students, employees and contractors equally, without regard to race.
The resolution that goes before the Board of Regents on Wednesday would not bring any immediate change to UC practices. Still, it allows regents to back away from a policy that critics say had made black and Latino students feel unwelcome on the university's nine campuses. It also lays the groundwork for the faculty to recommend significant changes in admission policies.
The proposal by Judith Hopkinson, a 1999 appointee of Gov. Gray Davis, is billed as a consensus that unites two longtime antagonists -- Regent Ward Connerly, the Sacramento lawyer who championed the affirmative-action ban, and Regent William Bagley, the San Francisco lawyer who has been fighting to overturn it almost since the day the regents voted.
This compromise is the first proposal that regents thought had a chance of passing decisively. Although it commits the University of California to race-neutral practices, the proposal also calls for the university to ``seek out and enroll'' a student body that reflects California's diversity and support those students in their studies. ``The action is symbolic, but symbolism is important,'' said Stanley Ikenberry, president of the American Council on Education.
``It will be followed with a great deal of interest nationally.'' Bagley's campaign to ``repeal the ban'' gained momentum in recent years as the proportion of black, Latino and American Indian students enrolling at the university has remained low, most markedly at the system's most competitive campuses. He gained an important ally in Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who joined the board in 1999, and in the state Legislature's increasingly powerful Latino Caucus, which has pressed the university to do whatever it takes, short of breaking the law, to enroll more Latino, black and American Indian students.
Pressure from the Latino Caucus, including threats to withhold state funding if regents did not revisit the 1995 decision, was a driving force in convincing some regents they needed to find a compromise, Connerly said. Connerly credited Hopkinson with providing leadership in bringing him and Bagley together behind something they could both support. Hopkinson and other Davis appointees, he said, have brought a fresh point of view to the debate to help break a longstanding impasse.
``If Latino and black students legitimately believe the debate created an atmosphere that the university may not welcome them -- even if I think that is bogus -- as long as they perceive that, it's important to me to deal with that,'' Connerly said. ``It's important to accommodate others' point of view as long as I'm true to my own.'' Bagley said he agreed to support Hopkinson's proposal ``in the interest of restoring the university's reputation'' and to ``send a signal that the university's doors are open to all Californians.''
Over the years, he said, ``I have been wishing, and hoping, and waiting for a majority to develop'' so regents could attempt to repair the damage. Bustamante could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but student Regent Justin Fong called the proposal a sham. ``This reaffirms and reinstates'' the regents' 1995 policy, Fong said. ``It does not repeal or rescind it. It doesn't change anything.'' Yet some longtime opponents of regents' policies, which banned affirmative action in admissions and hiring, were pleased with the proposal they saw for the first time Wednesday.
``Whatever language they use, they are scrapping'' the 1995 policies, said Ronald Cruz, a UC-Berkeley senior who has been active in seeking a repeal of the ban through the group known as BAMN. ``This is a clear victory.'' The proposal is significant in its affirmation of the role of the faculty in determining admissions policy, said Michael Cowan, chair of the Universitywide Academic Senate. ``It throws the ball back in the faculty's court to propose any changes,'' he said.
In February, UC President Richard Atkinson asked the Senate's Academic Council to consider eliminating the SAT I college admissions test. At the same time, he urged campuses to move away from ``qualitative formulas'' for admission such as grades and test scores alone in favor of more-comprehensive evaluation of individual applicants.
Contact Becky Bartindale at bbartindale@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5459.
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