Connerly withdraws weighty item

Monday, May 20, 1996

Regents postpone vote on gender- and race-based scholarships
until September

By Michael Howerton

Daily Bruin Staff

SAN FRANCISCO — Race- and gender-based financial aid and
scholarships at the university were expected to be the subject of a
cankerous debate at the Board of Regents meeting last week, but the
issue never got to the table.

The item was taken off the agenda by Regent Ward Connerly, who
initially proposed a vote to require the University of California
Office of the President (UCOP) to investigate the legality of
financial aid programs and scholarships, which are based on race
and gender.

President Richard Atkinson revealed his office was already
engaged in an investigation of that issue. Consequently, Connerly
saw no reason to present the matter to the board. Connerly also
refused to bring the matter up before the board because the issue
of race and gender had become a festering wound for the regents and
time was needed to heal. Since the board eliminated affirmative
action in the university in a close and heavily debated vote last
July, much of their monthly meetings have been entrenched in
bickering about the issue.

However, when the UCOP report is ready, which will probably be
in September, according to Atkinson, Connerly said he would bring
the matter up again, probably to seek the elimination of such
programs.

"It seems to me the era of allowing us to use race is rapidly
drawing to a close," Connerly said on Friday. "There’s no mistake
that people consider it to be inadmissible. But more than public
opinion, there are a great deal of legal cases that are saying that
race based admissions are not constitutional."

Connerly explained that the Bakke decision in the early 1970s,
which has been widely regarded as the legal justification for
affirmative action, has been misused far from its original
intention and is no longer valid.

However, many regents felt Connerly’s action was solely intended
to draw attention and to further mire the board in political
squabbles.

Regent William Bagely asked Connerly not to bring the debate on
financial aid and scholarships before the board, since the
California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) on the November ballot
would decide the matter by the mandate of the voters of the state.
Making a fuss about the issue now is only divisive and gratuitous
grandstanding, Bagely charged.

Atkinson said he did not see any reason to have the board deal
with the issue before the state vote, but since his office was
already working on the report, he would present something about the
issue to the regents no later than September.

Roughly one percent of undergraduate aid and about three percent
of graduate aid is based on race or gender, UC Provost Judson King
said, but cautioned these were rough figures and the surveys need
to be completed to know more precisely what percentages are
affected by race and gender-based aid.

Still, Regent Ralph Carmona accused Connerly of using the board
meeting to publicize his opinions and create a charged political
atmosphere.

"It’s inappropriate," Carmona said, "(Connerly) is using it as
an opportunity to grandstand." Carmona remarked that if Connerly
wanted a study done on aid, he just had to ask Atkinson and did not
have to bring it up for an open-meeting vote.

In addition, Connerly’s intense focus on the race issue, to the
exclusion of the issue of gender, reveals him as just wanting to
attract attention to himself as an African American seeking to
eliminate programs that he perceives to unfairly benefit African
Americans, Carmona argued.

"It’s unfortunate it lends to the perception that university
resources are being lent to aid a race-based approach to the
initiative," Carmona said. "The irony of it is (CCRI) will have a
profound effect on gender, not race."

"… the era of allowing us to use race is rapidly drawing to a
close."

– Ward Connerly

UC Regent