Coalition calls for repeal of SP-1, 2 at regents’ meeting

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Student Regent Justin
Fong speaks at a press conference put on by the
Affirmative Action Coalition in Ackerman Union Thursday
morning.

By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Affirmative Action Coalition members called on the UC Board of
Regents Thursday to repeal SP-1 and 2 at their March 14-15
meeting.

“Not only did SP-1 reduce our numbers, but it tarnished
our reputation for excellence and diversity. The excellence and
diversity we strive for, that we believe we represent, is a lie at
the University of California,” said Student Regent Justin
Fong at the press conference held in Ackerman Union.

The policies, enacted by the regents in 1995, ended the use of
affirmative action in UC admissions and hiring. The end of
affirmative action has led to a decline in the number of
underrepresented minority students attending the university.

“We were not that great to begin with,” Fong
said.

A year after the regents’ proposals were approved,
California voters passed Proposition 209 which eliminated the use
of affirmative action in the state and will remain law even if the
regents repeal their policies.

But many people see tremendous symbolic value in the
regents’ would-be repeal of their policies. According to Fong
and others, some underrepresented minority students who are
admitted to the university have chosen not to attend because they
feel unwelcome.

“Students are getting in, but they are choosing not to
come here,” Fong said. “We need to tell these students
that we want them here, they need to be here, and that we will
support them once they get here.”

The UCLA Affirmative Action Coalition, as well as its Berkeley
counterpart, is currently sending letters to prospective students
informing them of what they called an ongoing crisis at the
university.

“The enrollment numbers are indicative of the regression
toward the resegregation of UCLA and of higher education in
general,” the letter states. It also adds that the decrease
in the number of underrepresented minority students has led to
“a hostile environment for students of color on
campus.”

The number of African American students admitted to UCLA has
declined by 54.5 percent since 1995 ““ a time when affirmative
action was still in use. Since then, the number of Latino, American
Indian and Pilipino students also decreased by 42, 58 and 38
percent respectively, according to the UCLA Office of Academic
Planning and Budget.

“On March 14, the regents have the opportunity to take
down the “˜not wanted’ signs from the university,”
said Karren Lane, chair of the African Student Union. She called
for a student strike and protest at the regents meeting ““
which will be held at UCLA.

Lane also criticized Chancellor Albert Carnesale for repeatedly
refusing to endorse the repeal of SP-1 and SP-2 ““ something
students asked him to do again at a town hall meeting Tuesday,
where they confronted him with a poster endorsing the
policies’ repeal and demanded he sign it.

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Chancellor Albert
Carnesale said he wishes SP-1 and 2 were not on the books.

“I believe that not being able to use affirmative action
does harm the University of California,” he said, adding that
the regents repeal would only be symbolic.

Law Professor Laura Gomez, who has taught at UCLA since 1994 and
called herself “a proud beneficiary of affirmative action in
hiring,” said its loss holds long-term ramifications for
faculty retention.

“We will see a brain drain out of the University of
California. Faculty will be leaving. And I, for one, will not
continue to teach at a university, at a law school where I
don’t have black students, where I don’t have Native
American students and where I have dwindling numbers of Chicano
students,” said Gomez, who was the first Latina hired for a
tenure-track job at the UCLA School of Law.

In 1998, the first year affirmative action was not used in
admissions, students held massive protests ““ including one at
Carnesale’s inauguration as chancellor. Then, 88 students
were arrested after taking over Royce Hall as part of several days
of protests.

The next academic year, students and faculty organized a massive
walkout across the university protesting the end of affirmative
action.

President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 executive order 10925 was
the first to enact the use of affirmative action at the federal
level. Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson passed an
executive order requiring government contractors and subcontractors
to use affirmative action to hire more minorities, and a year later
this was expanded to include women.

In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of race as a
factor in admissions in the Bakke v. The Regents of the University
of California decision, but ruled that numeric quotas could not be
used to reserve spots for minorities.

Activists at Thursday’s forum urged students to stand up
against SP-1 and 2 at the next regents’ meeting.

“We can call it a crisis, but my life has been at war
against this enemy,” said Fernando Gapasin, professor and
program coordinator at the Center for Labor Research and
Education.

“March 14 will be a battle, and I hope we win that
battle,” he continued.