Regents end UC affirmative action policies

Published: Monday, July 24, 1995

By Phillip CarterSummer Bruin Staff

SAN FRANCISCO - After a 12-hour meeting in which they were bullied by politicians, besieged by protesters, and evacuated by a bomb threat and a civil disturbance, the University of California Regents voted to stop admitting students, hiring professors, and awarding contracts on the basis of race and sex.

Thursday night's decision evolved after a long day of public testimony and political wrangling among the 26-member Board of Regents, who voted 14 to 10 and 15 to 10 on a pair of proposals to do away with race- and sex-based preferences in the UC system.

The proposals came from Regent Ward Connerly, who first raised the issue in January with an emotional speech about the injustice of affirmative action. Late Thursday night, he celebrated the decision, saying that the Regents chose the right path in governing the university.

Gov. Pete Wilson - a regent by virtue of his office argued that "California's diversity must be achieved naturally," and that the UC's affirmative action policies stood in the way of attaining that natural diversity.

"Students at the University of California should achieve distinction and will achieve distinction without the use of the kind of preferences that have been in place," said the governor, his voice still hoarse from his throat surgery two months ago.

Somewhat stunned by the defeat, Rev. Jesse Jackson, after leading nearly 1,000 protesters in a daylong siege of the regents' meeting, pleaded with the board to continue their affirmative action policies.

"Replacing race and gender solely with economic criteria attempts to deny the existence of racism and sexism, which are systemic, institutionalized forms of discrimination," Jackson said. "The scale of inequality suggests that larger social and historical forces are at work."

During eight hours of public testimony, the regents heard from many university officials and students who argued that the university would be making a grave mistake in passing Connerly's proposals.

Prior to the meeting, UC President Jack Peltason, all of the UC's chancellors and other administrators sent letters to the Regents expressing their support for affirmative action.

"If you vote to dismantle affirmative action, you are doing so in utter disregard of the entire university; in defiance of its president, of its vice presidents, of all its chancellors, of the faculty of all nine campuses, and of the student leadership," said Dr. Haile Debas, dean of UC San Francisco's medical school.

Debas' comments struck a chord with many in the audience, including the chancellors and administrators who applauded his remarks.

The regents' repudiation of all its top academics became a major issue during the long meeting. Many speakers denounced the regents for following the governor's lead in lieu of heeding the advice of its chancellors, faculty and president.

Several state legislators - including former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown - went before the board to allege that the Regents serve as political tools in the hands of Republican presidential candidate Wilson.

"You run the risk ... of descending into the political arena - the arena of the Pete Wilsons, the Willie Browns, the Tom Haydens," Brown said. "To (pass Connerly's proposal) would be to consign the university to the same base place where we, in the world of politics, reside."

The atmosphere of Thursday's meeting matched its divisive content, with tensions flaring so high that protesters stalled the meeting with a demonstration, causing all but five regents to flee the room.

The protest was sparked by a comment made by Regent Dean Watkins while the regents were debating the issue. Watkins apparently became fed up with some audience members' taunts from the back of the auditorium.

"Can we clear the meeting room," he quietly asked Chairman Clair Burgener.

Watkins' statement was picked up by a microphone, and the crowd immediately erupted into open protest. Rev. Jackson and a group of ministers went to the front of the room to lead the audience in singing "We Shall Overcome."

Twenty university police filed into the room in riot gear as 20 of the regents fled to a secret meeting site on another floor of the building.

During the disturbance, Jackson grabbed a microphone from the regents' meeting table, stood on a chair and denounced the board, saying that there would be "no peace on the campuses until there's justice."

Within 15 minutes after the regents' departure, the gathering of protesters appeared fractured, with one group of university employees, students and clergy clashing over what to do next.

Many said they wished to get arrested, but university police sergeant Jim Fox refused to order his troops to handcuff the protesters.

But the shouting inside the meeting did little to discourage the regents from passing Connerly's resolutions.

In fact, several regents commented after the meeting that the disturbance made them less sympathetic to the protesters' views.

The long-standing debate over affirmative action started with Connerly's highly personal speech at the January regents' meeting.

In his address, Connerly asked the university to investigate its policies of race- and sex-based preferences. Eventually, the debate snowballed into an issue of presidential proportions that divided California.

The regents then asked UC President Peltason and his staff to prepare lengthy reports on each type of affirmative action practiced in the UC system - in hiring, admissions and contracts. The administration began compiling the report in February, unearthing a series of revelations about UC policies.

UC Berkeley and UCLA said that they had given an extra reading to minority applicants to their freshman classes. Both universities agreed to discontinue that policy.

UC Davis and UC Irvine's admissions offices revealed that they had been unconditionally admitting all minority applicants who met the minimum UC entrance requirements, without even reading their applications.

Several campuses - including UCLA - disclosed that they had hired minority faculty through a special program without meeting the normal advertising and interview requirements. In addition, similar methods were used to hire minority applicants for top administrative spots without following the UC's formal hiring policies.

Despite these facts, the UC system's affirmative action policies seemed to pass the strictest tests employed by university officials. Peltason joined with the chancellors, faculty and student organizations in endorsing the set of policies.

However, this show of support for affirmative action did not sway Connerly, who had promised as early as May to do away with many of the UC's policies of preferential treatment.

After 12 hours of heated debate over his proposals, Connerly said he was glad the ordeal was over and reiterated that the Regents had chosen the right path in following the will of the people by abolishing affirmative action.

"Change is never easy," Connerly said. "This is a historic moment."

Lt. Gov. Gray Davis agreed with Connerly, but chafed at his upbeat portrayal of Thursday's vote.

"It is a historic day, but Pearl Harbor was a historic day also," Davis said. "(One which) we don't look back on with any pride."

See related story

Send a letter to the editor"California's diversity must be achieved naturally. Students at the University of California should achieve distinction and will achieve distinction without the use of any kind of preferences that have been in place."

Gov. Pete Wilson