Review of affirmative action programs proposed

Thursday, May 9, 1996

Regent Connerly attacks financial aid, minority scholarships

By Michael Howerton

Daily Bruin Staff

Since University of California Regent Ward Connerly spearheaded
the fight to eliminate affirmative action in university admissions
and hiring last year, he has continued to be one of the leading
advocates for wiping out all other policies which favor groups for
their ethnicity or gender.

With the Board of Regents meeting next week in San Francisco,
Connerly revealed last Friday that he will be seeking a review on
whether financial aid and scholarships programs based on race and
gender are constitutional.

Connerly cited two major court decisions within the past year
striking blows against the validity of scholarships limited to
certain ethnic groups, at the University of Maryland and the
University of Texas. The country is clearly moving in the direction
of finding such restrictions unconstitutional and indefensible, he
said.

"I want to know what programs are unconstitutional," Connerly
said. "I think it is clear that the courts are saying with
frequency that race-based decisions are unconstitutional."

Connerly decided to propose the review after he learned of a
scholarship at UC Davis which is only open to Caucasian women in
the field of agriculture.

The regents will vote at the meeting next Thursday, the first
meeting in two months, if they will require the Office of the
President to conduct the review.

"The governor is in favor and fully supports Regent Connerly in
his efforts to study the issue of scholarships and financial aid
that are solely based on race," said Sean Walsh, a press agent for
Gov. Pete Wilson.

"It is patently unfair to other students who are not members of
preferred racial groups. Discrimination should not be tolerated in
any shape or form in California’s public institutions," Walsh
continued.

Though the university has repealed affirmative action policies
in admissions and hiring, administrators have supported race-based
scholarship programs in the past. During a February protest in
which students stormed Murphy and Bunche Halls, UCLA Chancellor
Charles Young met with activists to express his support for
affirmative action policies including minority scholarships.

However Young fell short of drafting a letter protecting
minority scholarships ­ as the students demanded ­
because there were no plans then to downscale those programs.

Only earlier this month was it reported that Connerly was
proposing a bill to eliminate race and gender-based scholarships
and financial aid programs, but he said this was never his
intention. He is only seeking a review of the university’s
practices at this time, and doesn’t believe his request will meet
any resistance at the meeting next week.

"I can’t imagine any regent of sound mind saying, ‘let’s not
have the information,’" Connerly said.

But Jess Bravin, who begins his term as student regent in July,
said an investigation into the policy’s legality is
unnecessary.

"It’s the general council’s job to keep us in compliance with
the law," he said. "I don’t think we’re not in any danger in this
area."

While Connerly is only seeking information right now, he said he
foresees the elimination of ethnic and gender requirements from
state-funded scholarships and financial aid in the future.

Although private organizations will always be able to set up
scholarship funds for designated groups, Connerly said that the
same option should not be open to public institutions. This issue
is just part of the larger movement that is changing the face of
public education and making opportunities equally assessable to
all, he added.

"This is part of a long-term strategy," he said. "Public
universities are going through a radical change."

Bravin argued that such decisions on scholarship are "areas
traditionally reserved to faculty" and that the "regents should not
get involved."

Still, since affirmative action was introduced in the early ’70s
to help combat social inequalities, it has been misused and needs
to be removed, Connerly argued.

Rather than using race as one of the many factors, as specified
by the Bakke case which justified using affirmative action policies
in universities, race has been used as the dominant factor in
making decisions, Connerly said.

"We have been using race to meet out social justice, which is
completely unrelated to the institution of the university," he
said. "The courts have been saying that’s unconstitutional."

Some of the scholarships at the University of California which
are race specific date back to the 1890s, when segregation existed,
Connerly explained.

If race-specific scholarships are deemed unconstitutional, it is
uncertain if the university must forfeit the money altogether or
can appropriate them for other uses.

"It’s one thing to take the moral position and another to deny
money," Connerly acknowledged. He said he would favor eliminating
race-based scholarships even if it meant the money would be lost to
the university.

"On some issues you have to take a moral position," Connerly
said. "(Opportunities) restricted to whites or to blacks are
morally reprehensible."

But the consequences of eliminating minority scholarships might
be more than financial, some said.

"I don’t see the benefit to the university to further aggravate
racial divisions, especially with CCRI (California Civil Rights
Initiative) on the November ballot. There is no point in the Board
of Regents getting mixed up in this political squabble anymore than
they already have," Bravin said.

If the regents approve the investigation, the report may not be
completed until the September regents’ meeting, Connerly
speculated.