UC Berkeley Apologizes for Handling of Bias Charges

UC Berkeley Chancellor Ira Michael Heyman apologized Tuesday for what he said was the overly defensive way his administration reacted to allegations of anti-Asian discrimination in freshman admissions procedures.

Heyman stressed that he was not conceding that campus officials, as Asian civil rights activists charge, try to limit the number of Asian freshmen. However, in what was viewed as a big step toward cooling the hot political issue, Heyman said that he and his staff should have treated those allegations in a quicker and more sensitive manner.

‘We Have Caused Anxiety’

“I wish that I had been more sensitive to the underlying concerns at issue. While they did not manifest themselves as neatly as I now see them, Berkeley could have reacted more openly and less defensively than we did,” Heyman said during a hearing by the Assembly subcommittee on higher education about the Asian admissions controversy.

“We have caused anxiety that could have been alleviated. I apologize for that,” he added.

Subcommittee Chairman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) praised Heyman’s statement and said it helped end a period of conflict on the Asian matter and begin one of reconciliation. “What Heyman did is extremely unusual for the chief executive of a campus but it is highly commendable,” said Hayden.

Asian activists also were pleased.

Lillian K. Sing, a San Francisco municipal judge and a leader in a group called Asian American Task Force on University of California Admissions, called Heyman’s remarks “encouraging.” Henry Der, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, a San Francisco civil rights group, said: “We are delighted the chancellor has apologized for the mistakes and the lack of sensitivity by his staff. We have to go beyond that now, but this will take us a long way toward making the whole (University of California) system accountable.”

However, the Asian leaders said they remain angry at David P. Gardner, president of the entire UC system, for what they claimed is his slow and insensitive treatment of their complaints. In a letter sent last week, Gardner agreed to meet them for a second time in a year and said he hoped that could be done before the UC Regents discuss the Asian admissions issue at their Feb. 18 meeting in San Francisco.

Long-Simmering Issue

The controversy over UC admissions has been percolating for more than three years and has been handled on several fronts within the Legislature and the university. It began at Berkeley and spread statewide, a symbol of the growing political strength of Asian-Americans in California.

The matter is made more complicated by the remarkable increase recently in competition among all ethnic groups to enter the UC system as many families no longer can afford tuition at private schools. Competition is so stiff that UC Berkeley rejected 2,150 Asian and white students with perfect 4.0 high school grade point averages last year. UC officials and legislators say the university must expand its nine campuses and consider possible construction of a 10th.

About 26% of UC Berkeley undergraduates are Asian, more than four times their state population percentage. The civil rights activists claim that even more Asians would be enrolled if whites did not fear academic competition from Asians, who they say are stereotyped as over-eager bookworms.

In October, a report by the state auditor general found that white students appear to have a slightly easier time than Asians in gaining admission to UC Berkeley but discovered no evidence of overt anti-Asian bias.

However, the report also suggested that Asian admissions prospects are hurt by special considerations given to athletes, who are more likely to be white than Asian, and that the dropping in 1984 of an affirmative action program for low-income and immigrant students affected more Asians than whites.

Blacks and Latinos are considered under-represented and remain eligible for affirmative action admissions outside of the stiffest of competition. That puts even more pressure on UC officials to fairly address the concerns of other ethnic groups.

When the auditor general’s report was issued, Heyman quickly said it reinforced his conviction that there was no discrimination. He said Tuesday that the campus was taking several steps to ensure that unconscious bias will not affect admissions.

Heyman said he is awaiting a report on Asian admissions by a special faculty committee. He also has formed a group of teachers and students to look at how Asians adjust to life on campus and appointed a task force to review overall admissions procedures.