AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: U. of California votes to end Affirmative Action policies

In an extremely controversial decision, the University of California Board of Regents voted last week to end racial preference and gender in hiring and admission. The decision has sparked an intense dialogue across the country and is considered by opponents of affirmative action to be a major victory. But for those in favor of affirmative action, the vote represents a leap backwards to the 1970's when affirmative action was still in its infantile stages. "I think its going to make people more cognizant of the fact that there are contingencies who would really like to see an end to equal opportunity for all persons," said Anita Jenious, the University's Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action.. "We have to be concerned and ready to combat it if it comes to that," she added. Yet the affirmative action battle in California has just begun. Several government officials, including White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta have pointed out that California universities must keep affirmative action alive in order to keep research grants and federal contract dollars. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday that the change in policy at the California university puts billions of federal research dollars at risk. Panetta said that federal contracts with University of California will be reviewed and the Justice Department will be looking into the matter. Reaction to the vote among University officials was tempered. Some felt it was premature to determine its impact and others were just not sure. Provost Stanley Chodorow, who served as an associate vice chancellor for academic planning and dean of arts and humanities at University of California at San Diego, said affirmative action was an effective policy in California. "In my experience in UC, the affirmative action policies worked well," he said. "They were not quota systems, but genuine affirmative action programs that sought to increase the diversity of the student body and faculty and worked well." Sociology professor Ivar Berg, who has worked extensively with affirmative action, said the results of the California vote will not be discernable until November. Berg added that he is concerned with the decision, but it still unsure what it might mean for higher education. "We're nervous about it," he said. "Right now we are sculpting fog. We don't know what we are doing. I don't know where we are heading." He said the main problem with the cutbacks in affirmative action is whether the federal government will insist that universities follow the government's rules. And quotas are another issue according to Berg. "I don't think the courts will tolerate quotas," he said. "And our president [University] and provost will not tolerate quotas." Berg said that the potential loss of federal funding for universities which do not comply with affirmative action policies could become an extremely divisive issue among faculty, specifically between the sciences and the humanities. "We have a real conundrum," Berg said. Berg is fairly confident that as a private institution, the University will not be affected by cuts to affirmative action. "Penn is spending more and more on diversity," he said.

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