Affirmative Action Serves Society Well by Encouraging Diversity : The private sector and academia don’t do it voluntarily. They need a little nudge to admit minorities and women.

I am a graduate of Cal State Fullerton, and on Jan. 30 I was in the audience during a debate on affirmative action that took place in the Student Union. I am a product of affirmative action as well as someone with legal knowledge of the subject. What shocked me was the lack of understanding of the history of affirmative action--its goals and aspirations--demonstrated by the students, both white and minority, who posed questions to the panel.

When I applied to Cal State Fullerton in 1970, I had no money. My parents were farm workers when they first came to the United States from Guanajuato, Mexico, around 1910. They raised eight children. I was the youngest. By the time I was eligible to go to college, my parents were retired and living on Social Security. I was 22 years old when I applied, recently divorced and trying to get my education back on track.

While at Cal State Fullerton, I was the first woman speaker of the Associated Students Senate, the first Student Advocate (I represented students with regard to the university) and one of the student representatives on the University Faculty Council after the riots on campus in the fall of 1969.

UC Davis law school took me because of my academic grades and activities, although my Law School Admission Test scores were below what they would normally require for white students. I served as a student representative from the Chicano Law Students on the law school’s Admissions Committee. I attempted to get more minority and female students admitted to the law school.

Affirmative action was instituted in various forms to remedy past discrimination. In the 1960s, black, brown, yellow and white people of both sexes demonstrated in order to open up American society to the poor minorities and women. However, we knew the rich already had access to the American Dream.

I have been an attorney now for 17 years and, believe me, I have never seen those who had power, whether presidents of companies or state officials, voluntarily hire or admit a woman or a minority without the government looking over their shoulder. Until minorities and women are represented in companies (including the board of directors) and institutions in the numbers equal to their proportion of the general population, affirmative action will have to continue.

The university and society have an overriding social goal to ensure that there is diversity in its student population. The reason is that all will benefit from having students learn from each other about their ethnic culture, language, native history, customs, etc. in order to exchange ideas and be able to compete in the world market. The knowledge I learned from my fellow students helped me later in life when I wanted to do business in places like China and Japan. What better person to learn the ways of international economics, business, culture than from natives of that country, even if they are first-generation Americans? Diversity is a valid goal for any university, institution or workplace.

Voluntary affirmative action will never work. An analogy can be drawn to voluntary taxation. There are very few people in this country who would voluntarily tax themselves to the extent the government will. Well, people are not going to voluntarily admit minorities and women into the fold without a little nudge. People in power are not that benevolent.

As a business person, I know the United States will not be able to compete in the world market without educating its poor and diverse population. Countries that only have educated their privileged classes have faced economic collapse because the majority of their people are uneducated and therefore, cannot compete or participate in the development of their economy. The diversity of America will bring people together with different language skills and cultural backgrounds who, with education, will make our economy strong and our country a powerful economic force in the world market. Education is the great equalizer. So educate all our citizenry regardless of sex, race, religion or ethnic origin.

Go forth, young students, and claim your birthright and your country. Learn from each other and your elders. Learn about your political history and the economics that brought you your college or university and will guide you in the future. Be proud of your heritage, your culture, your language, your diversity. Make the world a better place as those of us have done before you. I wish you the best.