UC Protest Rips Policy On Minorities UC Protest Rips Policy On Minorities
Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 9, 2001
©2001 San Francisco Chronicle URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/09/MNE217135.DTL
Berkeley -- About 2,000 high school and college students converged on the University of California at Berkeley campus yesterday, calling on UC regents to repeal their ban on affirmative action in admissions. The rally at Sproul Plaza -- the scene of innumerable protests ever since the tumultuous 1960s -- was marred by some looting and violence as demonstrators marched through downtown Berkeley to demand that the regents take action at their meeting in Los Angeles next week, before the May 1 deadline for entering freshmen to declare their intent to enroll for this fall.
The demonstration came amid a renewed campaign to pressure the regents to reverse their 1995 vote to end racial and ethnic preferences in admissions. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and other state officials held a news conference Tuesday in support of a resolution introduced by Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, D-Los Angeles, calling for an end to the ban. Even if the regents were to reverse their policy, racial and ethnic preferences could not be restored.
California voters abolished affirmative action in public institutions when they passed Proposition 209 in 1996. But the organizers of yesterday's protest said a repeal of the regents' policy would send an important message of welcome to minority students. They said minority students now are discouraged from attending UC, or from remaining once enrolled, because of the regents' stand. The UC ban took effect in the fall of 1998, but the effect on enrollment of minorities is not clear.
The percentages of several minorities -- including African American, Hispanic and American Indian -- all dropped that fall, but so did that of white students. Asian students and those whose race is listed as "unknown" increased. Last fall, the percentage of African American, Hispanic and American Indian students all increased, while Asians and whites dropped, possibly reflecting UC's efforts to recruit disadvantaged minorities.
Asians, now the largest ethnic group among enrolled freshmen, generally have not been regarded as a disadvantaged minority. "What the thousands of you out there are saying is, we won't go back to segregation!" Oakland Technical High School teacher Tania Kappner told the cheering crowd of students and faculty at a noon rally on Sproul Plaza. UC police estimated the crowd on the plaza to be "slightly more than a thousand," said Police Capt. Bill Cooper.
One of the protest organizers, UC student Ronald Cruz, said the crowd was between 5,000 and 6,000. A Chronicle reporter guessed at more than 1,000 and fewer than 2,000. More than 1,000 students from several Bay Area high schools packed Pauley Ballroom on campus for a 10 a.m. rally, but it appeared that not all of them attended the noon rally.
The protest was called by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, which goes by the acronym BAMN. It has sponsored several demonstrations on campus since the ban was passed. One young man, an employee of a clothing store whose name was not disclosed, was beaten on Telegraph Avenue shortly before the noon rally.
During the afternoon march, another young man was shoved down and his head kicked, knocking his face into a car wheel and bloodying his nose. A Chronicle reporter also was knocked to the ground. The assailants were high school-age boys. Police said there were other assaults, although details were not known.
A Chronicle photographer saw about 100 young persons run into the Athlete's Foot shoe store on Telegraph Avenue and about a dozen of the youths run out with boxes of shoes. No suspects were apprehended in the assaults or the looting. UC Regent William Bagley, who favors restoration of affirmative action, said he believes that he can secure enough votes on the Board of Regents to reverse the ban by either the May or July meeting. He said next week's meeting is too soon.
"The ban needs to be reversed now," said BAMN member Cruz. "We've heard that same thing said by Bagley and other regents for two years." The fight for the ban has been led by Regent Ward Connerly, who also dismisses the value of a symbolic stand by the regents. But Bagley said the regents' stance has left the black community with the perception that "UC is tarnished." "I want to see more ethnic minorities in government," said Erica Nieto, 17, one of about 60 students attending the protest from Kennedy High School in Fremont.
Nearby, Celia Choy, a sophomore from University High School in San Francisco, debated with 20-year-old UC Berkeley student Susie Tang, one of about a dozen Berkeley College Republicans staging a counterrally against affirmative action. "The most frustrating is people saying affirmative action isn't needed anymore," Choy said.
Tang said, "I think with hard work, any person can get into UC Berkeley. They don't need to get in on the basis of their skin color." Last week, a coalition of eight student groups at UC Berkeley -- representing African American, Latino and other minority groups that have traditionally played an important role in recruiting minority students to campus -- threatened to withhold their recruiting assistance this spring if the regents do not appeal the ban. The timing is key because incoming freshmen who have been offered admission have to inform the university by May 1 if they want to enroll.
Chronicle staff writers Justino Aguila, Henry K. Lee and Tanya Schevitz contributed to this report. / E-mail Charles Burress at cburress@sfchronicle.com.
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