http://nwlc.blogs.com/womenstake/2007/10/the-future-of-u.html
October 02, 2007 The Future of UC Affirmative Action? by Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel National Women's Law Center This week's NY Times Magazine has a lengthy piece on affirmative action(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30affirmative-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin), with a particular focus on UCLA and what the author describes as the possible future of affirmative action. In the interest of full disclosure I feel compelled to reveal that I am a UCLA alumnae and was a student there both when the UC Regents, led by Ward Connerly, ended affirmative action in all UC admissions and when California passed Proposition 209, becoming the first state to effectively end affirmative action by statewide initiative. Since Prop. 209, Ward Connerly has made it his mission to spread anti-affirmative action initiatives around the country. - http://chronicle.com/news/article/2144/4-states-are-new-targets-for-bans-on-affirmative-action-preferences Back to the NY Times Magazine. Putting aside, at least for this post, some of the troubling comments made in this article — e.g., the author seems to credit Connerly's statement that achievement gaps between black and white students are largely "self-imposed by black people"— the article does acknowledge the marked decrease in minority enrollment since Prop 209. As it points out, Los Angeles has "easily the largest black population west of the Mississippi River," making the decline in enrollment of minority students since 209 all the more shocking. Indeed, in 2004 only 218 out of the combined total of 7,350 freshmen at UCLA & UC Berkeley were black. While these numbers alone are disturbing, the situation is even more extreme than the numbers reveal given that a significant portion of these students are athletes. Although athletics is important, even former(http://www.weshouldnotbetheonlyones.org/) UCLA athletes have protested that the black student population at UCLA should not be so limited. But a vast network of UCLA alumni and California corporations have stepped up to engage in outreach and recruitment to increase the pool of applicants of color to UCLA and the number of such students who select the university. They recognize that there is no reasonable proxy for race. And their efforts have paid off — the number of black freshman at UCLA alone is now up to 200, a significant increase in just one year. The alumni involved in these efforts are aware that opponents of affirmative action may challenge these practices. No court has said — or should say — that private, voluntary outreach and recruitment programs violate Prop. 209 or the U.S. Constitution. But my guess is that the usual suspects will look for ways to halt the progress these groups have made (indeed, affirmative action critic Richard Sander has already filed a public information request). Let's hope they don't – these programs need to be encouraged to ensure that California, and the nation as a whole, make diversity on campuses a reality and not just an empty promise. -- Subscribe to ZESTCaste by sending a BLANK email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
