Court allows race as factor in admissions

By Monique Simpson
Daily Bruin Contributor

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court’s ruling
Monday that Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School, located
on the UCLA campus, can continue using race as a factor in
admission.

The lower court ruled in Hunter v. Regents of University of
California that because the school has a justifiable reason for
considering race, it does not violate the rights of students not
admitted.

UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information
Science uses the elementary school to study racial groups’
learning skills and recommend new teaching methods.

As a “laboratory school,” school officials consider
applicants’ ethnicity, sex, family income and dominant
language to create an environment that can be studied for its
diversity.

The lawsuit was filed by James Hunter after his 4-year-old
daughter Keely Tatsuyo was not admitted to the school in 1995.

Deborah Stipek, director of the school was pleased with the
court’s decision.

“The ruling frees the school to continue to function as a
laboratory, as it was intended to function,” Stipek said.
“The ruling gives our group control over scientific
research.”

The appeal argued against the affirmative action-style police by
saying, “Once the downhill slide has started, there is no
delineated stopping point until the slide bottoms out in race-based
preferences in all sectors of society.”

But Stipek said the “narrow tailored ruling,” would
have “no broad implications.

University of California lawyers could not be immediately
reached for comment.

On the school’s application, Hunter’s daughter
identified herself as Caucasian and Japanese, which Hunter felt
contributed to his daughter not being admitted.

The appeal claims that the use of race in admission violated his
daughter’s constitutional right of equal protection under the
law.

Stipek said many students are turned away because of the
school’s limited capacity.

“The portion of applications we accept is small,”
Stipek said. “There are many disappointed parents, but this
is the first parent that I’m aware of to sue.”

Hunter’s attorney John H. Findley filed a writ of
certiorari, or petition, for the Supreme Court to hear the case in
July. That petition was denied Monday which means the court will
not hear the case during it’s October 2000 term.

Before reaching the Supreme Court, a three judge panel of the
9th Circuit Court ruled in support of the school’s practice.
The panel called the school “a valuable resource to
California’s public education system.”

The panel also equated the school’s use of race and
ethnicity as similar to a medical school’s use of African
American patients to study sickle-cell anemia.

But, in the 2-1 appellate decision, the dissenting judge, Robert
Beezer, said the ruling betrayed “a disquieting renewed
tolerance for the use of race in government
decision-making.”

With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.