Josh-Escobar-Full

Racism in Berkeley never left

Urban Animal

“Kill the Mexicans!” my friend hollered as we watched a movie. Some of my housemates groaned. Others chuckled. I stayed quiet even though I’m Mexican American. We all continued watching the movie; it’s easy to shrug off discrimination when it’s not directly targeted at you. Where I used to live, Read More…

Maintaining diversity

NATIONAL ISSUES: The U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision in sending Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, back to the lower courts to reexamine.

The U.S. Supreme Court did the right thing in not forcing the University of Texas to change its admission policies in its ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a case that tested the constitutionality of considering race in university admissions. The Supreme Court sent the case back Read More…

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Affirmative action, or skin-based judgement

Notes from Underground

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Although this seems like a no-brainer, it’s a concept that eludes most supporters of affirmative action. Last Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its 7-1 decision to uphold the current admissions process, which considers race as a factor, at the University of Texas at Read More…

Sproul photo

The unbearable whiteness of being

The Discomfort Zone

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, disgruntled high school senior Suzy Lee Weiss discusses how the college process is unfair. In the op-ed, Weiss connects how colleges tell applicants to “just be yourself” to how these three words break the backs of all college seniors who do not have Read More…

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College sports at a crossroads

The Critic Who Counts

If impulsive California legislators and the money-hungry National College Players Association have their way, UC Berkeley athletes may soon be going pro. The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday that California State Assembly Bill 475, currently being considered in committee, would require UC Berkeley and UCLA to pay student athletes an annual Read More…

Jason.Willick

Race versus class

The Devil's Advocate

Progressives are bracing for a devastating defeat in the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on the affirmative action case Fisher v. University of Texas. If the justices restrict race-based affirmative action, they will “erase 50 years of progress,” one activist declared in The Nation. That’s an overstatement, but there is wide Read More…

Jason.Willick

The Ivy League’s Asian problem

The Devil's Advocate

Last month, the gatekeepers to some of America’s top colleges gathered at a four-star hotel in Los Angeles to discuss what The Chronicle of Higher Education called “the next frontier” in college admissions: the evaluation of applicants’ “noncognitive” attributes. Put less glamorously, the assembled admissions experts brainstormed ways for the admissions process Read More…

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Meritorious applicants left in the dust

Race is just one factor among many issues in college admissions process

Almost 30 years ago, after claiming he had lost a teaching position to a woman of color, Thomas Wood turned his private frustration in to a public crusade in the form of Proposition 209, a California initiative that ultimately abolished affirmative action in education, employment and contracting in the state. Read More…