PLATFORM : UC Isn’t the Only Game in Town

STUART FISCHOFF, a professor of psychology at Cal State Los Angeles, talks about what the state universities offer:

The merits or demerits of eliminating affirmative action aside, it is ludicrous to argue that, if minority students can’t continue having their demographic status be a factor in admission to the UC system, they will be robbed of an irreplaceable educational opportunity.

At Cal State Los Angeles, 42% of the student body is Latino and fully 80% is so-called race/ethnic minority. Furthermore, 59% of the student body is female. Minority enrollment throughout the CSU system is also very substantial.

Clearly, minority students are getting into universities and getting an education. These students will establish traditions in their families and local cultures that will make pursuing a college education strongly desirable for generations to come. To suggest that not getting into a UC school will destroy the educational dreams of minority students, as many writers have argued, is disingenuous and nothing more than rhetorical disinformation.

Such arguments also are a backhanded slap at the CSU system and at the students who attend the 23 campuses. The CSU system, especially in the L.A. area and especially CSULA, has been largely ignored by the mass media of Southern California. Hence, to many students and their parents, these universities are invisible and, consequently, not considered when thinking about a university education.

Without hesitation, I can say that some of the finest students I have ever had the privilege of teaching and supervising were at Cal State L.A. More important, the vast majority of these outstanding students were Latino, African American and male and female in equal numbers.