UC Affirmative Action: War’s Far From Over : Wilson’s latest blow against this policy won’t end debate

Gov. Pete Wilson has prevailed again in his ongoing and divisive battle to dismantle affirmative action programs. After a rare appearance by the governor at a UC Board of Regents meeting Thursday, a vote was taken and a majority refused to reconsider the ill-informed policy that abolishes the consideration of race or gender in hiring, contracting and admissions.

Troubling was the regents’ refusal to consider the advice of UC campus chancellors and prestigious faculty members, who understand the university and the student body in a way the regents cannot. The system’s leading administrators support affirmative action but were not given an opportunity to articulate their positions before the regents. Where was the intellectual exchange for which the UC system is famous? The educators’ input was disregarded in this important decision, a departure from a tradition of shared governance that has enhanced UC’s educational policies.

All nine UC faculty senates oppose the reversal on affirmative action, which is scheduled to take place next year, ending what is a positive policy when properly administered. The chancellors and professors are angry at this apparent diminution of their academic authority. The opinions of most student leaders also were ignored.

A DUBIOUS LESSON: In effect, the regents on Thursday postponed reconsideration of their 1995 decision to torpedo affirmative action. Theirs was a change dictated more by politics than by evidence of reverse discrimination. Anecdotes aside, it’s important to remember that even with affirmative action, only 4% of UC students are African American, only 13% are Latino.

The abandonment of affirmative action comes out of wrongheaded thinking. This fair-minded admissions policy worked for decades to fill the UC campuses with top students and staff members. That remains a worthy goal today.

Reversing their position was not the only option open to the regents last week. They could have postponed implementation of the reversal. Regent Judith Levin, a UC alumna, had proposed a one-year moratorium, a sensible alternative given the unrelenting dissension on campuses over the issue and uncertainty regarding the consequences of the change. She decided to delay consideration of her proposal, however, because of what she called “continuing and blatant political intervention” into board matters.

GRADES JUST ONE PART: The governor told the regents, “Admission to UC isn’t an entitlement that should be distributed based on some quota. . . . It’s something to be earned based on hard work and individual excellence.” Of course. What Wilson fails to acknowledge is that excellence is also measured by qualities other than SAT scores. A UC system full of nothing but students with 4.0 grade point averages would not ensure that they would blossom into the quick, creative and diverse work force needed for the 21st century.

Wilson won again, but at what price to the University of California? In the wake of the original decision, which the governor engineered last July, it would be easy to understand if some top women and minority faculty members and students were to consider UC less than a friendly place.

Last week’s refusal by the Board of Regents to revisit this crucial issue will not make the debate disappear either on or off campus. Regent Levin has vowed to introduce her proposal for a moratorium on the 1995 decision again, perhaps at the spring meeting. Gov. Wilson may have won once more with the regents, but, fortunately for the future of the state, the fight for racial, ethnic and gender diversity on UC campuses is not over.