Wilson to Vote as Regent Against Affirmative Action

When the University of California Board of Regents meets on affirmative action this month, Gov. Pete Wilson will vote to end race- and gender-based preferences and will urge other regents to join him, his office announced Thursday.

As governor, Wilson serves as president of the regents, but he rarely attends meetings. The last meeting he attended was in January, 1992, when he and 19 other regents voted to raise undergraduate fees 24%.

But as university regents consider whether to end the use of race and gender as criteria in UC’s hiring, contracting and admissions, Wilson--who has made affirmative action a central target of his fledgling presidential campaign--issued a statement pledging that at the July 20 meeting he will vote to “end the unfairness.”

Wilson did not indicate whether he would support two proposals offered by Regent Ward Connerly that would abolish race- and gender-based preferences and increase the ratio of students that UC admits solely on the basis of academic achievement to between 50% and 75%.