Special Graduations The University of California Board of
Regents rejected a proposal from Regent Ward Connerly on July 16
that would have suspended university funding to special graduation
ceremonies, despite Connerly’s efforts to remove the proposal
from a vote. The proposal would have cut funding to any activity
that targets race, ethnic or sexual orientation groups, with the
concern that such activities separate communities within the
university. However, the resolution drew a barrage of criticism
from regents and students alike, who felt the resolution was too
broad in its wording and cut funding to activities many students
consider to be integral parts of their college experiences. Regent
Odessa Johnson spoke up in strong defense of special ethnic
graduation ceremonies, saying they were the “probably most
memorable part of the student’s career.” Second-year UC
Davis psychology student Homer De Ala said he attended the Filipino
graduation ceremony and didn’t feel there was anything
divisive about it. “They (special graduation ceremonies)
allow you to celebrate graduation with more intimacy and
celebration than your name being read and you walking across the
stage,” he said. De Ala added that students of many
ethnicities attended the Filipino graduation ““ making it an
inclusive event. Connerly attempted to withdraw his proposal during
the discussion period, but because the item was already on the
table, the educational policy committee voted on it anyway. The
committee rejected the proposal by a vote of 6-3. Connerly said he
changed his mind about the resolution after Student Regent Matt
Murray pointed out that it would cut funding to critical activities
““ such as sexually transmitted disease awareness programs for
lesbian, gay and transgender students ““ a point Connerly said
he had not considered before. Rather than pushing his resolution,
Connerly asked that students who attend special graduations attend
regular graduation ceremonies as well. “If we’re going
to have separate practices, please attend both, don’t just go
to one, because it is important for all the people … to see the
fullness of the University of California,” he said. This is
the third time Connerly has put such a resolution before the
regents, and he said this would also be the last. Connerly is a
long-time opponent of the consideration of race, gender or sexual
orientation practices in state institutions. He is the author of
the Consideration of Race, Ethnicity, Color, or National Origin
initiative ““ otherwise known as the Racial Privacy Initiative
““Â which seeks to prohibit the state from collecting data
on a person’s ethnicity. It will be up before voters during
the next statewide election.
Admissions On July 16, the regents voted unanimously to approve
a drastic change in their admissions policy, placing less emphasis
on SAT I and SAT II exams, and more on high school curriculum. The
change in admittance policy follows an overhaul of the SAT I and
ACT exams, an overhaul that was instigated by UC President Richard
Atkinson’s remarks in early 2001 that called for a
re-evaluation of admittance policies in colleges around the nation.
Currently, applicants to the UC must take the SAT I or ACT exam,
and the SAT II exams in math, writing, and a topic of their choice.
Starting in 2006, applicants will take either the new SAT I or the
standard ACT exams, both of which are being revamped to include
writing components, and two SAT II exams in a selected range of
subject areas, such as history, English, the social sciences or
mathematics. Regent Odessa Johnson said the decision put the UC on
the “right track” toward a more balanced admissions
policy by moving the UC away from relying on standardized tests
like the SAT. “These kinds of tests did not always reflect
what the middle schools and the high schools produced,” she
said. Now, the UC will better take into account the content of high
school curriculum, Johnson added. The SAT drew criticism from many
because it tried a student’s test-taking skills rather than
comprehensive knowledge they might have gained in school. Some
critics also said students who could afford to take special SAT
classes would be better-prepared to take the exam versus students
who could not afford the classes. “We’re trying to get
away from the view that students are prepared by learning tricks
and test-taking techniques,” said Barbara Sawney, a chemistry
professor at UC San Diego and the chairwoman of the Academic
Senate’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools,
which was in charge of overseeing the admissions policy shift.
Besides including a writing component, the revised SAT I will do
away with verbal analogies, a pet peeve of Atkinson. The ACT will
offer an optional writing test along with its mathematics and
language arts components. The new SAT I and ACT exams will be
implemented during the 2005-2006 school year.
Labs On July 16, the regents named a new director of the
UC-managed Los Alamos National Laboratory and received an update on
the kinds of security measures being implemented at the Los Alamos
and Livermore laboratories ““ an update that suggests problems
there may not be as bad as originally thought. Retired Vice Admiral
George Nanos, the current interim director of Los Alamos, was
cemented into the post of permanent director. Nanos is largely
credited with turning Los Alamos around after a series of financial
scandals and logistical embarrassments to the UC. In the past year,
the labs have been rocked by allegations of questionable
management, the misplacement of equipment, and unaccounted-for
expenditures, including an engineer’s purchase of a Ford
Mustang. The problems culminated with the announcement by U.S.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in May that the federal government
would not renew the UC’s contract to manage the Los Alamos
labs. At the regents meeting, Bruce Darling, the university’s
interim vice president on laboratory management, said that 99.6
percent of all the property at Los Alamos has been accounted for,
and that the UC is implementing an entirely new business plan to
manage the labs. In addition, the hundreds of thousand of dollars
laboratory employees were suspected of misspending may actually
amount to only a couple thousand dollars, Darling added. For
example, the engineer who supposedly purchased a Ford Mustang with
university funds turned out to be the victim of a financial fraud
wherein a corporation billed buyers for cars rather than laboratory
equipment. Darling also encouraged the regents to bid for the
management of Los Alamos next year, and many of the regents
expressed confidence that the UC could win the contract. “We
shouldn’t be worried about losing the labs. The contractors
should be worried about losing the UC,” said Regent John
Davies. However, Regent Norman Pattiz, warned that the regents
should not take the labs’ bid for granted and urged them to
exercise all their influence in the federal government to secure
another contract. “We will not be easy to replace, but that
does not mean a decision will not be made to replace us,” he
said. The three UC-managed labs in Los Alamos, Livermore and
Berkeley are considered some of the university’s most prized
possessions, and provide countless research opportunities for UC
professors and students. They also generated a large part of over
$3 billion in research contracts the UC earned last year.
Green Building Policy The regents voted July 16 to adopt the
Green Building Policy and Clean Energy Standard, which creates a
framework for the UC to improve its energy efficiency through a
number of measures, including purchasing electricity provided by
renewable sources. Draft recommendations for the policy call for
all new building projects, aside from acute-care facilities, to
outperform the provisions of the California Energy Code’s
standards by at least 20 percent. The policy also means the UC will
implement energy efficiency projects for existing buildings and
infrastructure, with the goal of reducing energy consumption by at
least 10 percent in the next decade. A small group of UC Santa Cruz
students brought sunflowers for the regents at the meeting to thank
them for supporting the initiative, which was started by
students.