Monday, 7/21/97 Agency to investigate UC’s admissions policy
EDUCATION: Minority enrollment drop prompts complaint by
coalition
By Matt Grace Daily Bruin Contributor A coalition of California
civil rights groups, which have asked the federal government to
investigate the Regents’ ban on affirmative action, claimed that
recent law school admissions provide evidence for discriminatory
treatment. The federal Department of Education announced July 14
that they will launch an investigation in response to the complaint
filed by the organizations. "The removal of affirmative action from
the admission process significantly benefits white and male
applicants, said Joseph Jaramillo, staff attorney for the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). "The office
evaluated the admission data after the complaint and found a
significant disparity between Caucasians and African Americans,
Latino Americans, and American-Indians," said Jennifer Peck, a
spokesperson for the Office of Civil Rights in San Francisco.
"There was enough to warrant our response to the inquiry." Under
the new admissions policy, one in ten African Americans and one in
twenty Latino Americans were admitted to the graduate schools for
fall 1997, contrasting to one in four whites. This prompted the
federal government to launch a complete investigation of the three
graduate schools, Peck said. The office did not find reason to
investigate gender discrimination, Peck added. "Examination of
federal civil rights will determine whether or not the admission
policy violated any federal civil right laws," Peck said. "The
federal government intervening will make the Regents think twice
about their decision." According to the complaint, the decision
violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its educational
amendments. Faculty at the law schools, however, deny any
wrongdoing and claim they have followed the Regent’s resolution to
the best of their ability. "We don’t feel we have discriminated
against anybody," said Andrea Sossin-Bergman, assistant dean of
admissions at UCLA. "We have done everything possible to maintain
diversity." UC Berkeley complied with the resolution because there
was no other choice, said Lujuana Treadwell, Assistant Dean of UC
Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law. "We analyzed our admission process,
we made the changes necessary and we went forward," Treadwell
added. "The UC campuses made a great effort despite the ban on
affirmative action," Peck said. Until the ban is overturned,
schools will have to become more creative in trying to maintain
diversity, Peck said. Although it is well understood that an
investigation will take place, when and by which governmental
agency remains to be seen. The only notification by the federal
government has been the announcement of plans for an investigation.
"Not knowing what the office of civil rights is up to, is hard to
say what it all means," said Bruce Wolk, dean of the UC Davis Law
School. "They have not really said anything," Wolk added. Although
the details about the investigation have not been released,
Jaramillo is confident that current admissions criteria is a
violation of federal civil rights law. Without the consideration of
race and ethnicity as admissions criteria, UC law schools give
greater weight to culturally-biased LSAT scores and GPAs from
schools with higher reputations, Jaramillo said. This ends up
hurting students from schools with high minority enrollment, like
Howard University and Cal State University, he continued. Admission
officials also give special consideration to individuals who have
shown measures of good characters, but do not recognize individuals
who overcome racial, ethnic or gender adversity, the complaint
letter argued. "Admission officials ignore these hardships, which
ends up hurting minorities even more," Jaramillo said. In a
worst-case scenario, the investigation could result in the UCs
losing the $1.3 billion they receive in federal funding. But such
an extreme result is highly unlikely. However, rather than remove
federal funding, Jaramillo expects a compromise between the federal
government and the UC system. "We have to evaluate the best
solution, working with the universities," Jaramillo said. Previous
Daily Bruin Story: More students choosing UCs this year,
7/14/97