UC President Janet Napolitano (Photo: University of California)
UC Regents Vote To Restore Race-Based Admissions
Beating the drum for diversity, UC is bringing back affirmative action
By Evan Gahr, June 17, 2020 6:40 am
The University of California wants to return to the days of race-based admissions.
The UC Regents voted unanimously Monday to restore affirmative action for the sake of attaining a “diverse” student body and to support ACA 5, which would void the Proposition 209 ban on race and gender preferences in state college admission, employment and public contracting.
ACA 5 was approved by the Assembly last week on a vote of 60-14 last week. If approved by the two thirds of the Senate by June 25, it would go on the ballot in November.
“There is amazing momentum for righting the wrongs caused by centuries of systemic racism in our country. The UC Board of Regents’ votes to endorse ACA 5 and to repeal Proposition 209 plays a part in that effort,” said UC Board Chairman John Perez, and former Assembly Speaker. “As we continue to explore all the University’s opportunities for action, I am proud UC endorsed giving California voters the chance to erase a stain, support opportunity and equality, and repeal Proposition 209.”
The Regents said in a statement that the University of California “has long been committed to creating and maintaining a student body that reflects California’s laudable cultural, racial, geographic and socioeconomic diversity. However, Proposition 209 has challenged the University’s ardent efforts to be equitable and inclusive as it seeks to attract the best and brightest students from all backgrounds, while ensuring equal opportunity for all.”
Explaining the vote UC President Janet Napolitano said that “it makes little sense to exclude any consideration of race in admissions when the aim of the University’s holistic process is to fully understand and evaluate each applicant through multiple dimensions. Proposition 209 has forced California public institutions to try to address racial inequality without factoring in race, even where allowed by federal law. The diversity of our university and higher education institutions across California, should — and must — represent the rich diversity of our state.”
After Proposition 209 was enacted the University of California tries to insure greater “diversity” among students with outreach efforts intended to benefit minorities without explicitly considering race so they could stay within confines of the law. For example, in 2001 the UC started guaranteeing admission to any student who ranked in the top nine percent at his or her high school.
They also adopted a “holistic” approach to admissions–considering more than just grades and aptitude test. In addition to that the students socioeconomic background was considered as well as their ability to overcome challenges.
But Napolitano’s office said in a memo prepared for the vote that these efforts have not achieved the desired results.
“Despite these policy changes and programmatic efforts, UC has not kept pace with the diversity of students in California K-12 schools or with the overall California population.”
Before Proposition 209, “the proportion of freshmen from underrepresented groups (URG) averaged 19 to 20 percent, then dropped to 15 percent in 1998 then slowly increased over the next 20 years, reaching a peak at 37 percent in 2016—an increase that can be attributed to the increase in enrollment across all UC undergraduate campuses. Meanwhile, the percentage of URG students graduating from high school has nearly doubled to over 56 percent in 2016.”
The University defines underrepresented groups as Black, Latino, Pacific Islander or American Indians.
The Regent’s action is their latest beating the drum for diversity.
In May the Regents voted to stop considering SAT and ACT tests for admission because they are supposedly unfair to minorities.
“These tests are extremely flawed and very unfair,” said Lieutenant Governor and Board of Regents member Eleni Kounalakis. “Enough is enough.”
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UC President Janet Napolitano is the HBIC of the Arizona Mafia Mexican drug cartel. Our DOJ and HHS are the problem. She should have been arrested long ago….Grateful that both my kids are done with college for any parent considering sending their child to college in California DON’T….
As Secretary of Homeland Security, her primary job was to put the welcome mat out for illegal aliens.
Race preferences are racist. What is next? Segregated schools and student housing?
We endured years of this and whites did not protest, burn or loot, destroy business or create Autonomous Zones.
Students should be admitted based on their SAT scores and grades not by the color of their skin. Napolitano is part
of the Obama era agenda and is misguided. White students also have to take a back seat to Latinos when applying to colleges. Seems like our paid representatives are more interested in helping anyone but white students! We have a very sick society!
All you need to do is learn some Spanish – this is America, after all, everyone should make the effort to understand the language of the dominant majority culture.
If Prop 209 is eliminated, the UC system will start issuing participation certificates instead of degrees.
CA already issues Certificates of Participation: degrees abolished a decade ago. Chancellors beg the best and brightest in 10th grade To enroll in UC giving early admission: no luck. Most prepared students are smart enough to know to get out of CA to earn a recognized degree. CA taxpayers fund social programs at its UCs and CSUs to eliminate personal responsibility while providing high paying jobs to thousands of dependents. It’s CC’s have become day care run by militants. CA is #50 of 50.
already issues Certificates of Participation: degrees abolished a decade ago. Chancellors beg the best and brightest in 10th grade To enroll in UC giving early admission: no luck. Most prepared students are smart enough to know to get out of CA to earn a recognized degree. CA taxpayers fund social programs at its UCs and CSUs to eliminate personal responsibility while providing high paying jobs to thousands of dependents. It’s CC’s have become day care run by militants. CA is #50 of 50.
This is a racist policy. It discriminates against all students who were born with white skin.
Bean counting of ethnic groups was wrong when they did it in the past and it is now wrong.
The only way to get diversity is by starting with good schools in these minority areas. It must start at the bottom otherwise it is flat out racist and unfair to qualified students.
AMEN!!! You are so right! And you didn’t see white students protesting, rioting or taking over city blocks.
I agree. However, our entire education system will never improve until we stop inviting poor, uneducated foreigners to come here and have lots of children (at taxpayers’ expense). Our schools keep getting blamed for their students’ poor performance. However, having majorities of parents who never finished elementary school, cannot speak English, and can be of absolutely no help with their children’ studies is the real reason for the poor test grades. Furthermore, all the problems these families bring with them require teachers and other staff to devote an inordinate amount of time to them at the expense of American children.
Lastly, in our Hispanic-majority state, this just means that, once again, Americans of African descent will be left behind in favor of the quisling Democrats’ foreign base (I am NOT a Trump supporter).
If you refuse to print this then i will assume censorship of diverse opinions is the policy here.
Getting tired of censoring on any platform. Where is the diversity of thought?
Living in California since 1944 and in Georgia for a few years (US Army), I have a year-by-year perspective on our history of racism and I can tell you, progressive/democrat/subversives are bringing it back BIG TIME and have ever since Pres Johnson’s “Great Society” program. The demo party has done nothing but pander to minorities for their vote since but it appears that recently, the tide has turned and minorities are now getting the message…