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 o most people,
the University of California's latest
admissions
statistics are good news. The number of "underrepresented" minority
students — black, Hispanic, and Native American — has
increased for the third year in a row, and is now within 0.2 percent
of the number admitted under racial preferences.
But instead of cheering, in the past few months the preference lobby
has grown increasingly strident in its calls for a restoration of
preferences — and now the state's elected officials are beginning
to hop to.
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In early January, UC Regent William Begley proposed a reversal
of SP-1, the motion, approved by the board of regents in 1995
that ended preferences. Later, Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh (D.,
Los Angeles) introduced a similar resolution.
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In early March, the UCLA Affirmative Action Coalition, a student
group, sent letters to prospective minority students, warning
them that the school was moving toward "resegregation," and that
race-blind admissions created "a hostile environment for students
of color on campus." Students in a similar organization at Berkley
announced that they would "actively discourage" students from
attending, a move endorsed by. UC student regent Justin Fong.
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A week before a pro-preferences "Day of Action" rally at UC Berkeley,
the San Francisco school board unanimously approved an "emergency
resolution," encouraging students to play hooky to attend the
protests, and setting aside $1,500 to pay for their transportation.
The superintendent eventually nixed the measure, but several schools
in the area sent their students anyway; others simply looked the
other way when kids didn't show up for class.
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At the Berkeley rally, held on March 8, dozens of protesters looted
an Athlete's Foot shoe store, and assaulted several people, including
a Chronicle reporter and a teenager who was shoved to the
ground and kicked in the face. (The Chronicle later wrote
that the "looting and assaults marred an otherwise peaceful rally.")
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On March 14, 500 students stormed UCLA's Royce Hall, forcing the
cancellation of a mayoral debate, as 1,000 more protested outside.
Two candidates, former Speaker of the Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa
and Rep. Xavier Becerra (D., Los Angeles), responded by joining
the protesters.
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The day after the admissions figures showing the third consecutive
year of increased minority admissions, a joint senate/assembly
committee scolded the UC for not increasingly them enough. "Something
has to happen, and something has to happen soon," said Lt. Gov.
Cruz Bustamante.
Now, the UC regents are poised to reverse the ban on racial preferences
when they meet in mid May. The vote will be mostly symbolic —
Proposition 209, will still be the law of the land — but not
entirely. One component of SP-1 requires that between 50 and 75
percent of every campus's entering class be admitted "solely on
the basis of academic achievement." Doing away with that requirement
would give admissions officials more discretion to look at non-academic
factors — which, some fear, could lead to the de facto, small-scale
reinstatement of preferences. Given UC admissions officers demonstrated
zeal for racial set-asides — in 1995, for example, the university
confessed that three campuses, Davis, Irvine, and San Diego, were
admitting every "underrepresented-minority" applicant regardless
of qualifications — that concern isn't far-fetched.
The question remains: Why, amid steady increases in minority acceptances,
are California's education and political leadership so receptive
to demands for racial preferences? Ideology is certainly one reason,
but think there's another, broader impulse at play — sloth.
With racial preferences, UC admissions officers could simply wave
their hands and achieve the "correct" ethnic balance on each campus
— and then pretend they'd actually done something to improve
the state of education. It was a sham but it was easy and made them
feel virtuous and powerful. Without preference they have had to
work a lot harder — spending millions of dollars on aggressive
recruiting of qualified minority students, as well as mentoring,
SAT-prep, and teacher-training programs — and to be patient
with gradual improvement. The fact that these measures might actually
improve minority education hardly matters. With the campus Left
and leading Democrats cheerleading, don't be surprised if next month
the UC regents vote to take the easy way out.
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