UC students presidents call for Connerly to resign

Tuesday, February 18, 1997

REGENTS:

Co-signers of letter allege improper use of Board of RegentsBy
A.J. Harwin

Daily Bruin Contributor

In reaction to Regent Ward Connerly’s efforts in the fight
against affirmative action at the national level, 14 of the 18
University of California undergraduate and graduate student
presidents submitted a letter to California newspapers calling for
Connerly’s resignation.

"We’ve been calling for his resignation for how he politicized
the regents with Proposition 209," said John Du, president of the
Undergraduate Student Association (USAC). "He basically used the
Board of Regents as a political billboard for his anti-affirmative
action campaign."

Du and the other co-signing presidents feel Connerly’s alleged
use of the Board of Regents for political purposes must end
immediately in order to preserve academic freedom and the equality
of education at the University of California.

"We cannot allow Ward Connerly to continue to muddy the name of
the University of California by using his position as regent for
political purposes," Du said.

The letter points out that the California Constitution was
established to "insulate the university from the political
influences of the legislature and the tides of public opinion," and
that Connerly’s position as a regent allows him the opportunity to
further his political agenda.

Connerly was greatly disturbed by the letter, claiming that he
does not associate himself as a regent when fighting against the
discrimination that he believes affirmative action causes.

"My first reaction is that children will be children," Connerly
said. "My second reaction is ‘Where is all the diversity that
people talk about?’ They want diversity, but they don’t want their
rivals participating in the debate."

The letter was originated last month by Jeremiah Paknawin-Mock,
president of the UC San Francisco Graduate Students Association
after Connerly announced his plans for the National Civil Rights
Initiative.

"My suggestion (to Paknawin-Mock) was that with the Proposition
209 campaign, (Connerly) took great steps to separate himself from
the two positions as head of the Prop. 209 campaign and a regent,"
said Chris Tymchuk, UCLA Graduate Student Association (GSA)
president. "However, he can’t completely separate the two in the
eyes of the public and that is what the letter is calling him
on."

But support for the letter was not unanimous. One campus
president refused to sign the letter on the grounds that it was
more of an attack on Proposition 209 rather than the actual actions
of the regent, Tymchuk said.

"(The dissenting president) felt that Connerly was representing
the California public and is completely within his rights to
further his political agenda," he added.

But the letter’s timeliness led Tymchuk and many of his
colleagues to sign even without unanimous support.

However, Connerly pointed out that except for affirmative
action, he supports student causes more than any other regent and
that he votes consistently with the student regent.

"For them to say I should resign because of my deeply held
beliefs suggest that they are fickle, intolerant and naive,"
Connerly said. "Regents also have rights. I’m not trying to exploit
my title as regent. The (California) Constitution says that regents
will protect the university. That does not mean we will close our
eyes."

E. Jean Gary, former president of the California Women Lawyers
Association and former president of the Los Angeles Black Women
Lawyers Association, agreed with the presidents’ letter.

"I thought that they made a very good point in that he has
decided to politicize his whole position on the issue of
affirmative action," Gary said. "For him to try to start another
organization and to go national, it seems that he’s taking full
advantage of his position.

"I think it was a very timely and appropriate call for him to
step down," Gary continued. "He seems to be a mean-spirited person,
and he seems too contentious for someone who’s on the Board of the
California Regents."

Daily Bruin File Photo

UC Regent Ward Connerly