Editorial: UC’s minority enrollment issue needs attention

The declining enrollment among certain minority groups ““
specifically blacks and Latinos ““ is a far-reaching problem
that affects all of the student body. And Thursday, National Take
Affirmative Action Day, was a good time to weigh solutions to this
problem.

This is especially true at a campus like UCLA, which is in a
city that has large populations of blacks and Latinos. Yet to have
minority groups make up only 18.1 percent of the 2005 freshmen
class ““ which includes 116 blacks and 683 Latinos, out of a
class of 4,523 students ““ is an embarrassment to this
university, to the city and to the state.

We would say those numbers are inexcusable ““ except there
is an excuse, and it reflects a sad reality: California voters
apparently don’t care to address or correct the mistake that
is Proposition 209.

Proposition 209, which was passed in 1996 with 54 percent of the
vote,, dictates that the state cannot “grant preferential
treatment to … any individual or group on the basis of race, sex,
color, ethnicity or national origin” at any of its
institutions, including the University of California. After the
ballot measure passed, the UC saw the first of many drop-offs in
black, Latino and Native American student enrollment. It is a
problem which still hounds the system’s two flagship campuses
(UCLA and UC Berkeley) to this day.

Proposition 209 should be repealed because it is blind to not
look at race in California ““ arguably the most ethnically
diverse state in the country. True, race is a touchy subject and
has the potential to create heated and ugly arguments. But ignoring
it entirely ““ as Californians have chosen to do ““ does
not make it go away. As far as Proposition 209 purports to be a
sort of solution to the issue of race in California, it is clearly
a broken one.

But we’re not convinced affirmative action is the best
solution either.

Of all the many things UC admissions officers consider when they
leaf through applications, race should certainly be one of them,
because the UC’s mission is to reflect the make-up of the
communities it serves.

But it also should not be the only one ““ as some advocates
of affirmative action seem to imply. Admitting students who are
ethnic minorities strictly because they are ethnic minorities does
not do anyone any favors. Not for the students who are qualified to
be at a university but aren’t because they are not of a
minority group. And not for the students who are admitted because
of their ethnic decent, but aren’t necessarily prepared to
compete academically at the university level.

If “affirmative action” means establishing quotas or
a point system (like the one at the University of Michigan that was
struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 2003), then
that would be to ignore the issue of race, but in a different
way.

The UC already has a fairly comprehensive and holistic measuring
stick when it comes to determining who it admits and who it
doesn’t. Augmenting that with the consideration of race
““ and other traits that contribute to diversity, such as an
applicant’s socioeconomic background ““ would be a good
first step.

For that to happen, Proposition 209 needs to go.