Individualism vs. Affirmative Action Policy in UC Admissions

Lisa M. Hatton questions whether the value of individualism and self-determination are being destroyed in the name of diversity as the University of California system wrestles with its commitment to student affirmative action (letter, July 12).

She is one of the unfortunate many who believe that this world treats all people as individuals and that somehow the exceptional success stories of a nonwhite or a non-male person prove the notion that all you need to succeed in life is an individual drive.

In actuality, such examples prove that because minority success stories are only the exceptions, the rule for the powerless is “failure” that results from structurally oppressive treatment by those in control of the structural hierarchy.

The empirical data that Hatton draws on when she points out that “minority students are exactly those who drop out despite special enrollment and tutoring privileges” should stir up the question of what kind of campus climates are such students expected to “succeed” in, rather than assuming that the extremely high attrition rates of those students are somehow reflective of their innate “scholastic incompetency.”

If she took the time to look around the University of California campuses, she would notice that the tenured faculty, academic deans, and top administrators are predominantly white males. This is the harsh reality that defines the climate of UC campuses.

“Diverse” student bodies are asked to play the campus game with rules set up and run by the powerful, and they are consistently blamed for coming out in last place.

I wonder if there will ever come a day when the process of denial for folks who vehemently express their intolerance for “reverse discrimination” is exchanged for the recognition of what affirmative action really is: a movement to salvage a historically elitist and skewed educational system, a movement triggered by the structural oppression of nonwhite and non-male students that has existed--maybe in various disguises--but always and already there.

JENNY J. DOH

UC Student Regent

UC Irvine