Today we are pleased to feature a guest commentary from former Unversity of California Regent and Proposition 209 author Ward Connerly. We asked Mr. Connerly to comment on news yesterday that that a committee of the University of California Board of Regents has accepted a report calling on more the student population of the U.C. system too be more ethnically and racially diverse…
Californians, beware!
The Board of Regents of the University of California (UC) has unanimously endorsed a report that proposes a significantly more aggressive approach to creating “diversity” in the faculty and student body of UC. What this all means is that the entire UC system, including all of its campuses, will now be doing everything they possibly can to circumvent Proposition 209 – a ballot initiative approved by the California electorate on November 5, 1996, by a margin of 55-45, to end “preferential treatment” on the basis of race, gender and ethnic background. And, all of this will be done with the implicit blessing of the governing board of the institution – the Regents.
When the Regents created a “study group” in July 2006 “to assess the long-term effects of Proposition 209,” one could have predicted that the fix was in for a report claiming inadequate “diversity” and proposing recommendations to remedy the perceived problem. The truth is that the UC establishment, including many of the regents appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has total contempt for 209 as well as the people who voted for it. This establishment is part of the entourage that originally opposed 209 and that has been working feverishly to overturn it since its passage.
Robert Dynes, the UC President who has announced his retirement, sums up the rationale for this new “diversity” effort when he says: “We have to have faculty that looks like the students that are going to want to come to the University of California.” And, of course, he wants students who “look like” the people of California. This goofy line of thinking has been rejected by the people in favor of an admissions system and faculty hiring process based on individual merit and qualifications.
Because of the profound academic achievement gap that exists between black and Latino students on the one hand and Asian and white students on the other, academic standards are going to have to be relaxed to achieve this elusive goal of “diversity.” When this happens, the people of California will be cheated in ways too numerous to mention. Most significantly, however, is the fact that it costs the taxpayers of our state somewhere between $13,000 and $14,000 each year to subsidize every UC student. These students ultimately become our architects, engineers, physicians, and pharmacists, for example. As such, we have a right to demand that they be competent and meet the highest possible standards. Lowering academic standards in the foolish pursuit of racial “diversity” is not in the best interest of California. We should all be outraged.
Ward Connerly is a former regent of the University of California, Chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, and 2005 recipient of the prestigious Bradley Prize for his defense of the American ideals of freedom and equality. To respond to or comment on this column, please send an email to feedback@acri.org.
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