by Lance T. Izumi, Fellow in California Studies
Pacific Research Institute
May 1, 2001

Announcer lead: Time for Perspectives. Lance Izumi says that it would be unwise for the University of California to undo its color-blind admissions policy.

When he was elected California’s lieutenant governor, Cruz Bustamante had the reputation as a political moderate. Yet, for much of his tenure, Bustamante has been a leader of liberal forces that wish to re-institute race preferences in government policy. Indeed, Bustamante, who also sits on the University of California Board of Regents, will propose at the regents’ May meeting that the UC drop its 1995 ban on racial preferences in admissions.

According to Mr. Bustamante, he wants to remove the supposed “unwelcome” mat in front of the UC. Paradoxically, he believes that race preferences are needed to ensure equal opportunity.

Bustamante’s claims are flawed. First, given that the number of applications to UC from underrepresented minorities has gone up under the regents’ current policy, it is hard to see any “unwelcome” mat. Indeed, the number of blacks and Hispanics in the UC system as a whole has increased. Although Bustamante and his allies point to a dip in underrepresented minorities at UC Berkeley and UCLA, those two schools are still as or more diverse as comparable high-prestige public and private universities.

Even if the regents’ current policy was repealed, Prop. 209 would still ban any reconsideration of race in the admissions process. Bustamante, though, says that dropping the policy would also allow the UC to eliminate its associated policy of admitting 50 to 75 percent of students on grades and test scores alone. Yet, sacrificing merit to create a politically-correct racially-proportionate student body places social-engineering concerns above achievement at the very time Gov. Davis and others are emphasizing student achievement in the K-12 system.

Bustamante’s proposal is a bad idea. Instead of playing racial politics, the lieutenant governor should concentrate instead on increasing the pool of black and Hispanic students who are academically prepared for a UC-level education.

With a perspective, I’m Lance Izumi.

Lance Izumi is the Director of Center for School Reform at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached via email at lizumi@pacificresearch.org.