The ASUC Senate voted Wednesday to pass a bill supporting a Feb. 13 Day of Action in favor of overturning Proposition 209, a 1996 bill that prohibits affirmative action in admissions to public institutions.
Under the bill, the senate will withdraw about $400 from its Contingency Fund to support the Day of Action at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which will consider arguments in favor of overturning the proposition, according to ASUC Finance Officer Victor Chen.
The bill — which overwhelmingly passed 15 to 1 with four senators abstaining — also asks instructors to be lenient on class attendance that day.
“I felt it was a really important opportunity for the ASUC and the state of California to advance social justice,” said CalSERVE Senator Sydney Fang, co-author of the bill. “Prop 209 is really hindering the communities that I represent — it’s important for all of us to understand each other’s experiences, and for people to learn more about underserved communities and what it means to have the experiences that students of color do.”
The protesters will demonstrate in favor of overturning the proposition outside the courthouse as part of a long struggle to determine the fate of affirmative action in California.
“(Affirmative action) is a solution to systematic inequalities in the American education system,” said Student Action Senator Safeena Mecklai. “Diversity is in the best interest of students — (the proposition) is clearly decreasing the number of minority students on our campus.”
Debates over affirmative action last erupted over SB 185, a controversial state senate bill that would have allowed public universities to consider nonacademic factors such as race, gender and nationality in the admissions process.
That bill, which was vetoed in October by Gov. Jerry Brown, elicited much contention on campus, with the Berkeley College Republicans holding a satirical “Increase Diversity Bake Sale” on Sproul Plaza in September that garnered national media attention.
Members of the club were present at the meeting Wednesday and spoke in opposition to the ASUC bill.
“The ASUC bill passed last night reflects an increasingly irresponsible student government which claims to represent the views of the student body, but continues to sponsor one-sided views, particularly when it comes to the issue of Affirmative Action,” said Shawn Lewis, president of the Berkeley College Republicans, in an email.
Lewis said in the email that the club opposes the senate bill because it misrepresents students and misuses student fees for political purposes.
Some senators remained ambivalent about the bill’s passage and decided to abstain as a result.
“The reason I abstained was to show … that although I support affirmative action, I am opposed to the funding of buses for one specific political goal,” said SQUELCH! Senator Noah Ickowitz.
Ickowitz said while the campus is almost completely unified over opposing state budget cuts, this is not the case for affirmative action.
The majority of senators stressed the need for outreach to the community to draw support for the day of action.
“This is a big moment in California history,” Fang said at the meeting. “Students from all over California, from UCLA, Davis, Irvine, are coming out to join us — please tell your communities to come out and support.”
Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the senate allocated $400 to only buses. In fact, the money went to buses and other supplies for the Day of Action.
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Where’s the coverage on the ASUC bill that’s going to allocate the majority of the fee increase funds meant for student organizations to the Daily Cal, an organization that once bragged about its independence from the university, that is not actually an ASUC organization? So assholes, either cover this ridiculousness or let the money go where it belongs. ASUC money should not pay your employees and it should not fund an expansion of online presence. If the Daily Cal can’t handle independence, then go back to the teet properly, which means no more paid employees and a loss of freedom.
Ivan Drago is cold, but his words are fair and should apply to the Daily Cal just like every other business:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDgcc5Sif3k
It is seriously difficult to believe that the ASUC Senate is overwhelmingly composed of racists.
I support this protest, but…$400 to transport students to the court? It’s at 7th and Mission, just steps away from the Civic Center BART stop. Less than $8 round trip. Seriously?
If CalSERVE Senator Sydney Fang were denied admission to Cal because she is Asian, how would she feel? Asians are overrepresented at Cal based on percentage of population, so is she willing to throw merit out the door in favor of race-based admissions?
With the removal of prop 209, discrimination will only increase. Those student’s of color/minority who have worked hard to qualify at the standard set for the majority will be thought of as gaining admission due to race alone. They will be thought of menally inferior regardless of how highly qualified they may be. This will carry on to Professional careers, how will an employer differentiate between someone who is truly qualified vs. someone who has merely had lower standards set for them.
This is a state failure at the K-12 level. It cannot and should not be made up at the College level.
I’m inviting you to consider that Affirmative Action will simply allow disadvantaged students form oppressed areas to compete. If you consider that the SATs are a huge barrier to students of color, and you get a chance to look at how those tests are truely designed to provide the university with a white demographic, it will chnge your perspective. Just to get you started, look up the man who created standardized tests, Carl Brigham, what you discover about him will blow your mind. Thanks.
I was going to take you seriously until you said, “…those tests are truely designed to provide the university with a white demographic.” It obvious that you are just race bating when if you just look at the statistics you will realize that Asians are way overrepresented in the UC system. But to respond to what your said I will in response say that it looks like you should devote your energy to fixing the k-12 system, not prop 209, which will, if removed, flood the UC system with unqualified students.
I definitely agree with this. We need to fix our K-12 system in California so that students can to be able to get into the UC system by THEMSELVES. By having affirmative action it just makes it unfair for those people who actually work their butts off to get into the UC system.
False. While Asians represent over 40% of the student population on campus, you fail to take into account how the breakdown of the Asian population would look like. There are many international students from Asia who represent a completely different community than Asian Americans, and they have very different issues that they deal with. There are many Asian groups that are vastly underrepresented, such as Southeast Asians such as Filipinos and Vietnamese, not to mention Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong, etc. The state of California also holds an extremely large population of Asians, over 30%. Of course our university should reflect the way the community around it looks like. Now look at the population of Latinos… they are the largest group to graduate from California high schools, yet they represent only 13% of the Cal population.
And what’s going to happen to the Chinese American with a 3.85 GPA and 2350 on the SAT.
College Counselor:
Hmmm, the UC slots are all full of Native Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics that are less qualified than you. Well, their is the Liberal Art program at the CSU you can take, but its not your major Computer Science.
Student:
But UC Berkeley has the highest job acceptance rate for the Computer Science grads, in addition they are paid more too.
College Counselor:
Well, I’m sorry AA applicants have filled up all the slots at the CSU and UC system, except for Liberal Arts. So its liberal arts, community college, or a private university.
Student:
Private university!? My parents can’t afford that. My Chinese parents own a restaurant, but they can’t part with 35,000 a year.
College Counsler:
Sorry, than its CSU or community college for you. Oh hey ( ), just a moment I’m finishing up with this Asian, BTW you got into Berkeley. See you tried real hard and by getting a 2.95 GPA and a 1320 on the SAT they accepted you.
The university isn’t meant to look like a world of nations conference. I love our cultural diversity in California, but race should not be a factor in who does and doesn’t get accepted into the university. How would you feel if you were white, and worked your butt off to complete the requirements, but you didn’t get accepted because someone who didn’t work as hard as you got in because the school needed to fulfill there race quota? How does that seem fair to you?
@anon, a bunch of misinformation you just posted. Asians are only 15% of California, furthermore Southeast Asians are not underrepresented in the University of California. SEA represent less than 2% of the state population but more than 5% of the UC population. That is not underrepresented.
[I'm inviting you to consider that Affirmative Action will simply allow disadvantaged students form oppressed areas to compete. ]
They can “compete” right now if they are willing to bust their asses and get decent grades. Come on now, Jim Crow and legally enforced segregation were dismantled nearly a half a century ago. Two generations have passed since that time. How long do we continue playing favorites with some people because of what happened not to them or their parents, but their grandparents?
There already are already massive affirmative action preferences. It
is currently so much easier to “compete” for admission to Cal from a
low API School than from a high API school that it is ridiculous. The
GPA can be lower in regular classes with little competition for grades.
Sat and Act scores can be at the national average. UC Personal Statement prompt #2 essentially instructs the applicant to report his race in the essay; and in case the applicant does not pick it up from that, UC outreach informs potential applicants to be sure to mention their race in the essay at outreach events. The readers know the race of the applicant before reducing an applicants Gpa, Sat/Act scores and other academic and extracurricular accomplishments to a number from 1-5, all without any set guidelines and zero accountability or explanation to the applicant why he received a 1,2,3 or 4. 5′s are not eligible to apply. The applicant is not even told what his application was scored or that his application was probably scored by an African American or Chicano reader selected by race to exhibit a preference for diverse applicants and to discriminate against white applicants. The result is that
the average UC Gpa of admits from low API schools even at graduation, if that point is ever reached, is much lower than for admits
from high API schools. Primarily white lower middle class applicants from medium to medium-high API schools, 5-8, face significant discrimination in admissions.
YOU’RE KIDDING RIGHT? whites face significant discrimination in admissions?! even if all that were true, can you excuse the fact that people of color are more likely to come from a low API school, not due to their own fault, but because of the segregation of communities? and because of the lesser education they get, they are less likely to meet even the minimum requirements for attending a UC because many people of color aren’t even aware that they need to complete A-G requirements? and while this is an issue on the k-12 level, affirmative action attempts to correct just SOME of the WIDESPREAD, systematic discrimination against people of color. and this is just for those who are able to get an adequate GPA and SAT score. white people basically rule the rest of the world. you look at private colleges and other campuses and unlike some of the UC schools, whites are the overwhelmingly majority. and you want to deny people of color a few spots? because whites aren’t at the top of every elite circle already? i’m so sorry, but stop being so butt hurt. why are you so eager to complain when white admissions might be hurt by a small percent, but people of color have been systematically denied from universities, and no one wants to try and fix that??
You’re kidding yourself if you think that people of color are on an equal playing field right now. If you look at the way communities are still segregated by race, and the schools within those communities and how they are funded, you would realize that White people have a major advantage in terms of school funding and programs. The UC system accepts the top 12.5% of students from the state depending on their GPA… so if students going to a high school with extensive AP classes get a 4.5 GPA, and a student from a poor community can’t even get above a 4.0, then they are automatically disadvantaged because of the lack of opportunities available to them.
If you look at the SATs, the system the inherently racist. In addition to the more obvious fact that wealthy students have the resources to pay for tutoring/test prep, the language and subject matter of the test is geared towards a white homogeneous demographic, and the access to advanced classes (i.e. calculus, which my school didn’t offer), there are certain practices that the program implements to actually keep scores at a certain level for certain races. When you take the SATs, there is one section of the 10 that is not graded, and those questions are used to determine which questions will be used for the next SATs. Out of 2000 questions, the SATs picked 800, all of which black people were more likely to get incorrect than black people, sometimes by a margin of up to 40%. There are definitely many questions where African Americans did better than whites overwhelmingly, but those questions are never picked. Most likely it’s not because someone is there being overtly racist. Most likely it’s because if all of the sudden black people started doing really well on the SATs, then conservatives would start complaining about how the SATs are somehow giving preference to blacks, how they are making the test easier for them and giving them an unfair advantage… because in their mind if people of color are successful, it’s only because we helped them cheat in some way.
You all make it sound like affirmative action is going to just let any person of color onto this campus without looking into their academics. The color of our skin is not a free pass, not in our daily lives and not in the admissions process.
In what way are the SATs a huge barrier to students of color? Are these test graded by color, or by performance?
Do the oh-so-progressive sheeple realize that in their opposition to Prop 209 they are in fact PROMOTING racial discrimination? Or is such discrimination OK provided it’s only directed against politically incorrect groups such as white folks and Asians?
every asian group who has ever taken a stance on affirmative action has been for it. when affirmative action was first implemented, asian americans definitely benefited from it. not everyone is just thinking about their own race and how they can gain from it. some of us are thinking about society as a whole, and why it’s the right thing to do to right the overwhelming racial discrimination in this country. not just slavery, or jim crow. racism is alive and well and systematic today. and for the record, i am an asian american, i support affirmative action, i deserve to be here but if affirmative action were implemented and our numbers took a hit, i’d be fine with that as long as the student population on this campus was more representative of the way this state looks and minorities had more representation.
As a recent grad and with two cousins about to go to college Affirmative Action is sicking. Lets see:
My cousin: Varsity Soccer, Academic Decathlon, 3.75 GPA, Chess Club, and regular member at his church. 2200 SAT. Want to be a doctor to help poor villagers.
AA Example: 2.95 GPA, 1500 SAT, couple criminal convictions, no real plan for college, part of the (Racial Group) that wants to cede US lands to their mother country club, and played a little sports.
Lets let in the AA candidate. They are MUCH more qualified because of Melanin content.
Judge them by the content of their character? No! That’s Wrong. We MUST judge them by the color of their skin!
All Praise affirmative action! We must institute into the state job market. The AA guy barely passed Med School, what he had to take his surgical rotation three times because he failed twice, MAKE him the ER trauma doc. We don’t have enough of () racial category in that group. So what if a few people die, it was worth making sure our staff was racially equal.
Anyway, a place like UC Berkeley is not the right venue for bandaid solutions to undue the systemic flaws of K-12 education in this state as well as a lack of parental commitment to demanding excellence in their children. Admitting underqualified students is only paving the way for misery on their parts if they simply can’t meet the rigors of a UC Berkeley education.
It must be heartbreaking for Sydney’s parents to see their child undoing the decades of struggle and sacrifice they underwent, culminating in the passage of Prop 209, in order to give all students a fair and meritocratic chance at admission to the state’s best public universities.
Were Prop. 209 not in existence, bright students like Sydney Fang would have been passed over in favor of less highly qualified students of other racial backgrounds solely in order to meet misguided dreams of diversity by race quota. Sickening.
if affirmative action were not implemented long ago, uc berkeley would still be an overwhelmingly white university and asian americans would not have had the same opportunity to attend. thus, sydney fang probably wouldn’t be at berkeley regardless. if we’re going to get hypothetical.
That bullshit has no basis in fact.
Fuck the ASUC losers.