Thread: Ghosts in the Machine

http://ucsdguardian.org/viewarticle.php ... =09&day=19

09 / 19 / 2006

Ghosts in the Machine
A decade ago, Californians dismantled affirmative action in UC admissions, but did we get the color-blind


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system we were promised?
By Marnette Federis
Senior Staff Writer

When Revelle College senior Modesta Diego found out she was accepted to UCSD, she said she was excited to be going into the UC system after all her hard work in high school. But during her first week at school, as she walked around campus for the first time, she began to notice something she wasn’t expecting. Used to everyday life in diverse communities in East Los Angeles and Downey, Diego realized how few Latino students there were on campus.

“Once I started walking around campus, it was undeniable,” Diego said. “Going to UCSD was a culture shock. It made me miss home more and I started to regret my decision.”

Diego spent the rest of her freshman year going home on weekends, only minimally involved on campus. But now, in her senior year, Diego is the new chair for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, a Latino student advocacy group. Today, she works with the organization to try and reach out to high school students from minority communities and convince them to go to UCSD.

“A lot of [students of color] are accepted, but when they ask a relative, a friend from high school — there are always negative reactions,” Diego said.

The number of underrepresented students in the UC system has lagged for decades. And then, in 1996, California voters passed Proposition 209, which prohibited the UC system from using race as a factor in its admission process. The controversial initiative launched a series of lawsuits, ignited campus protests across the state and spurred further debate over affirmative action.

Ten years after Proposition 209 took effect, the dispute continues.

Even before the initiative passed, the UC regents approved resolutions called SP-1 and SP-2, which also banned preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Those who supported the initiative and resolutions claimed the UC system was giving an unfair advantage to certain students over others.

Former UC Regent Ward Connerly was the co-author of the proposition and was among the leaders who pushed for the initiative’s passage. According to Connerly, while the decrease in the number of minority students in the UC system is a tragic consequence of the initiative, the system should focus on other factors to entice students.

“There needs to be profound cultural change to reverse tragic circumstance of so few [minority students] going to universities,” Connerly said. “Let’s focus on what we have to do to encourage people to lead productive lives.”

He said Proposition 209 produced some positive results, like an increase in Asian students. At UCSD, the number of Asian students has increased from 27 to 47 percent. Supporters argued that minority students might also feel ashamed if race was one of the reasons they accepted.

“Prop. 209 removed stigma attached to black, Hispanics [and] Native American kids,” Connerly said. “There’s no doubt how they got there.”

But opponents of Proposition 209 say the impact of the initiative was immediate and overwhelmingly negative, namely a decrease in the amount of minority students admitted to the state’s universities. In 1995, black students were 2 percent of UCSD’s population. Last year, it was only 1 percent. Latinos were 9 percent of the population in the mid-’90s *— now they are at 8 percent.

“Prop. 209 [made] an already bad situation a hundred times worse,” literature professor Jorge Mariscal said.

Proposition 209 prohibited state institutions from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting. Before this initiative, admission committees were able to assign about 300 points out of a possible 11,000 if they are from an underrepresented group. Opponents said that while those points were assigned, general academic performance has always been the largest factor in why students were accepted.

According to Mariscal, who was part of UCSD’s admission committee in the aftermath of Proposition 209, committees and classrooms ended up censoring themselves in the effort to comply with the new law.

“It generated a lot of time and energy trying to deal with it, but now we’re also spending a lot of time trying to make sure we’re not violating it,” Mariscal said. “It has created a censorship mechanism inside the university, where people are always worrying about Prop. 209, which I think is extremely negative.”

Some opponents also said the initiative created a harsh climate for students of color.

“The impact was even stronger,” Mariscal said. “Not only couldn’t we let people in who would have come otherwise, students got the idea that they weren’t wanted here.”

And it is this kind of climate that students and administrators are trying to offset. Mae W. Brown, the vice chancellor of admissions and registration, said that while many underrepresented students are accepted into the university, many are choosing to go elsewhere. This past year, for example, 353 black students were accepted at UCSD, but only 48 decided to enroll.

Mariscal accounts for such low numbers by citing a lack of sufficient financial aid, which discourages students from enrolling in the relatively expensive UC system. But ultimately, he said, a large part is due to the unwelcoming atmosphere in which students of color find themselves.

“So there are a lot of things leading to the poor numbers,” Mariscal said. “There’s a general sense that [UCSD] is a place for an elite population. You even meet working class Mexican-American families who say well I always thought UCSD was a private school.”

For Diego, belonging to a community is part of college development. She said for Latinos like herself, the experience at UCSD could be a very difficult one.

“It makes it harder to stay here, even though I’m fully capable [of] being in classes, I can never feel that sense of comfort,” Diego said.

According to Mariscal, who was a member of the UCSD committee formed to find ways to encourge minority enrollment, some of the suggestions included visible black or Latino studies programs and stronger financial aid packages.

Diego said increasing the number of underrepresented faculty and staff members could also help address the issue. But it is a chicken and egg dilemma. Studies have shown, he said, that even when UCSD hires new faculty of color, the same number of members leave because of, among other things, campus climate issues and perceived lack of support.

“What the administration can do, even though I know they’re limited because of Prop. 209, is scouting for more qualified underrepresented faculty and staff that understand how minority students feel,” Diego said.

Diego spent the rest of her freshman year going home on weekends, only minimally involved on campus. But now, in her senior year, Diego is the new chair for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, a Latino student advocacy group.

Isn't she special. She didn't try to fit in with non-Hispanic students. She went to college and merged right back into her stalemated life like "back home". How short sighted she is. Don't acclimate, congregate.

Dixie

Don't acclimate, congregate.

Exactly. Whatever you do......don't blend in.

So she's got a problem with white people????????

From what I understand, the act of ASSIMILATION is actively discouraged in their community, which would explain why it didn't enter this individual's mind to act in such a way as to move toward assimilation, by perhaps joining groups that are non-hispanic.

in her senior year, Diego is the new chair for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, a Latino student advocacy group.

She joins a sepretist group, and wants to recruit more into their special club. If they despise American culture so much, they should immigrate to a South American country. They are so racist.