Ethics Center Panel to Discuss Prop. 209

As the preelection passion over affirmative action and Proposition 209 continues to build, a small group of Cal State Northridge professors have posed a philosophical question:

What would Aristotle make of all this?

A panel of educators and attorneys will attempt to answer that question and others Wednesday at a discussion sponsored by the school’s Center for Ethics and Values.

The event, titled “Cultural Diversity, Affirmative Action and the Modern University,” is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in basement room 18 of Oviatt Library.

Participants include Christine Littleton, a UCLA law professor; Martin Michaelson, a Washington-based higher education attorney; E. Walter Miles, a San Diego State political science professor; Constance Rice of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Richard Wasserstrom, a philosophy professor at UC Santa Cruz.

“It’s not a debate,” said event organizer and CSUN philosophy professor Oscar Marti. “We are going to be asking what the ethical implications are of affirmative action, and of cultural diversity . . . You can walk downtown and find Indian food, Mexican food, Cuban food. It’s all there. The question is, what should the university do in that kind of environment?”

Although timed to precede next week’s vote on Proposition 209, which would end affirmative action in state and local governments, the discussion will not likely dwell on that measure.

“It’s not so much a question of the political realities, but looking at the policy as a concept,” said Ron McIntyre, chairman of the philosophy department. “Some people would argue that it is immoral, while others would say it’s a response to an immoral situation.”