Today in San Francisco, the University of California’s Board of Regents will vote for a proposal to eliminate the current system of special preferences for admissions based on race and ethnicity rather than individual merit and student achievement. As a regent, I’ll be at that meeting, casting a vote for change to end preferences based on race and ethnicity which ate, by definition, discrimination that violates common fairness and the U.S. Constitution’s protection of individual rights.
The fact is we live in the most diverse society the world has ever known. Here in San Francisco alone, our schools teach children who speak more than 80 Languages and dialects, from Mandarin to Hungarian. So no one needs to give Californians a sermon on tolerance or diversity or even worse, disrupt today’s proceedings as a cheap excuse for a publicity stunt.
The real issue in today’s meeting is whether we are going to give every student in California an equal opportunity to compete for a place at the University of California based not on race but, rather, ‘on the standard that counts most: individual merit.
The current system of special preferences is fundamentally unfair—especially when the students receiving preference have never been the victims of discrimination and the students whose place they take have never practiced discrimination.
‘The result is that instead of bringing people together, these affirmative action programs are driving us apart. Campuses are being desegregated—divided into ethnic groups that have no contact or communication. ‘The result is a Whole that lacks the sense of community that should be at the foundation of every university—and indeed every society.
And when it is more important than ever that our universities prepare our children for the coming, century of international competition, We cannot afford policy that seeks to cancel the competition and admit students to our universities on any criterion except individual merit, Two decades ago, in the Bakke decision, the Supreme Court chastised the system tor making race & primary issue in admissions, But since the regents first look up this issue last August, it’s become increasingly apparent from a host of Students, faculty and administrators, as ‘well as from the explicit policy for admission to specific campuses that race is as deeply embedded in our admission process as the jvy on our Campus walls, Atthe University of California at Berkeey, members of some protected groups automatically qualify for admission even though students with better academic credentials, who happen to be Asian or white, not only don’t qualify for admissions but, in some cases, don’t even get the essays can their applications read.
‘At both the UC Irvine and UC Davis campuses, any “underrepresented” minority who applied last year and met the minimum standard for the UC system was automatically admitted—while other, more qualified students were rejected because they were not of the politically correct ethnicity.
Most disturbing of all, however, given that the UC system was created to educate Californians is the fact that members of “underrepresented” groups who aren’t even California residents get a preference ‘over California residents who are white or Asian even though they are the children of California workers who pay the taxes that support the university.
Most Californians agree that the system {s fundamentally unfair. The question is: what do we do about it?
After denying these practices occurred, the university administration has acknowledged that the current system is unfair. The president’s office promises to do belter. But rather than promises, we need fundamental change in policy.
Rather than tinkering around the edges. of this problem and causing more division each time the issue is revisited, the sensible solution is to overhaul the admissions process to ensure that every student—regardless of race or ethnicity— gets equal treatment.
‘Then, we must goosestep further. Rather than sacrifice families on the altar of diversity, we need to achieve diversity by ‘ensuring that more students of all races and ethnicities graduate from high school fully prepared to attend UC and to succeed.
UC cannot do this alone. We need fundamental education reform of our public schools. But UC can help, by helping 10 improve our public schools in preparing all students for admission into the university system based on merit, not preferential treatment. J understand that some are concerned ‘about the turmoil that making these ‘changes may cause, But we can’t afford to shy away from what’s right simply because advocates of the status quo will loudly object to reform. Agter all, this nation was founded upon the ideal that every individual should be treated equally regardless of race, religion or ethnic Thomas Jefferson declared, “equal rights for all, special privileges for none.”
Courtesy San Francisco Chronicte.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 4, 1995
