‘Foot-Dragging’ Charged in UC Probes : Education: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher urges swift completion of investigations into admission practices at several universities.

The U.S. Department of Education is “foot-dragging” in investigating admissions practices at UCLA, UC Berkeley and Harvard University that allegedly discriminate against Asian-Americans, an Orange County congressman told a congressional subcommittee Thursday.

“Virtually no progress has been made regarding the (investigation of) college admissions discrimination,” Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) told members of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on education.

Rohrabacher, who represents northwestern Orange County, asked the panel to earmark $250,000 of the nearly $50 million requested by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights to complete the current investigations and begin new ones.

The civil rights office began a “compliance review” of admission practices at UCLA in January, 1988; at Harvard in July, 1988; and at Berkeley in July of last year. Earlier this month, the office announced it would begin a similar review at Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley’s law school.

A spokesman for the Education Department said Thursday that the investigations at Harvard and UCLA will be completed “shortly,” but had no other comment on Rohrabacher’s remarks.

Rohrabacher contends that institutions such as Berkeley and Harvard have kept out some qualified Asian-American applicants to keep spaces open for less qualified blacks and Latinos under university affirmative action plans.

Last spring, Rohrabacher introduced a “sense of Congress” resolution calling for federal investigations of the consideration of race in university admissions. The controversial resolution, which has about 75 co-sponsors, so far has languished in two House committees.

Many Asian-American leaders, while critical of some college admissions practices, have complained that Rohrabacher’s effort really is a not-so-veiled conservative attack on the concept of affirmative action. That policy extends special recognition in hiring and admissions practices to minorities who historically have been the object of racial discrimination.

“Rohrabacher . . . (is) trying to use the so-called Asian complaint as a ruse to go after student affirmative action programs,” said Henry Der, a member of Asian-American Task Force on University Admissions in San Francisco.

The 5-year-old organization in recent years successfully negotiated changes in UC Berkeley’s admissions practices that the task force believed discriminated against Asian-Americans.

“We have not asked for the U.S. Department of Education’s involvement. . . ,” Der said.

Despite occasional problems, Der said, affirmative action “is an essential program as part of higher education in America.”

A spokesman for Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento), the vocal opponent of Rohrabacher’s House resolution, said Matsui nevertheless agrees with Rohrabacher that the Education Department inquiries have taken too long.

“That’s something we’ve been saying for a long time,” said Steve Oddo, Matsui’s press secretary. Oddo said it would probably require more than money to get the job done. “It’s going to take an attitude adjustment over there,” he said.

Rohrabacher has said previously that he supports affirmative action programs that have been ruled legal by the U.S. Supreme Court, but objects to any use of racial quotas in university admissions.