Vol. I, No. 6
Despite admitting reservations about affirmative action, Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson told a state Assembly panel that efforts targeting underrepresented and minority groups remains necessary to achieve both diversity and quality in higher education.
During the first of three days of hearings, Wilson was grilled for three hours in a trial-like proceeding by a Republican subcommittee investigating so-called preference policies in the Cal State system. Two other CSUN administrators also were interrogated.
Apart from sparking a political flap when Wilson was asked if she was under the influence of any drugs prior to testifying, the hearings did yield the news that the CSU this year quietly broadened eligibility for several programs that formerly targeted minorities and women.
During the sessions, subcommittee chair Bernie Richter (R-Chico) argued the Cal State system ought not consider race, ethnicity or gender at all in hiring, contracting or student recruiting. But Wilson and Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz disagreed, notwithstanding the recent changes.
"My message is all of us here today must understand that preferences...are wrong whether they apply to African Americans, women or to white men," Wilson said. "But a society which is not compassionate about the habits of the culture that make it an uneven playing field for people is also wrong."
"I do not believe affirmative action as we practice it is totally just," Wilson conceded to Richter. "But not having something that causes us to reach out to those who are disadvantaged by any, any definition would also make this a society that I wouldn't be comfortable with," she said.
Eventually, Wilson said, as society becomes more diverse, distinctions based on race and gender "will become unnecessary and absolutely useless." But she meanwhile faulted educators for not better establishing a clearer link between diversity and quality education.
The hearings came just weeks before California voters next Tuesday, Nov. 5, will decide Proposition 209, which would outlaw most state and local government race, ethnic and gender preference policies in public education, employment and contracting.
There has been a substantial debate over just how much the measure would impact the Cal State system and its programs, if passed. The recent actions by Cal State officials appear to narrow that exposure even more, although some campus officials still fear broad consequences.
Some political observers said the widely reported hearings--Oct. 16 and 17 in Sacramento and the final session last Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Burbank--were timed to the election by Richter, a fervent Prop. 209 supporter. But Richter and his staff denied that charge.
During the hearings, Richter and Robert Corry, a conservative activist attorney appointed to head Richter's "investigation," quizzed Cal State and CSUN officials on the documents and details of various university programs that have targeted minorities and women in the past.
The repeated suggestion, Wilson said, was that the CSU and CSUN activities were somehow illegal. Cal State officials said many of the programs and policies were specifically mandated by state or federal law. But Corry said the university still could face discrimination lawsuits.
"We have compiled a record that comes from the documents of the institutions that we have before us that is replete with prima facie evidence that our institutions of higher learning have been pursuing policies that are clearly discriminatory," the assemblyman said during the first session.
Included in his list were two CSU scholarship programs that targeted black and Hispanic students, a forgivable loan program specifically aimed at recruiting faculty members of underrepresented groups, and a fellowship program for graduate students from the same groups.
But by the final session last week, Munitz and other Cal State officials defused at least the politics of Richter's complaints, saying that several of those programs and others this year were broadened to instead focus educationally and economically disadvantaged individuals.
"It sounds like there's been a major change in the way the CSU does business over the past year," Corry said. Cal State officials disagreed, but said race and gender still are admissions factors when students apply to so-called "impacted" CSU campuses and programs with high demand.
Although the first hearing with CSUN administrators was civil on both sides, it began with a jolt when Corry first had Wilson sworn in and then asked if she was taking any medications or drugs that might influence her testimony--both rare moves for a legislative hearing.
Wilson called the entire session "strange" but didn't specifically complain about those aspects. Others did, however, as 30 state Democratic lawmakers signed a letter demanding that Richter be censured. Richter maintained he was just trying to ensure truthful answers.
--John Chandler
