Features

Minority students blasted UC Berkeley’s administration Thursday for not taking bolder steps to diversify the student body. 

They spoke out during a public hearing in UC Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union. Without a critical mass of underrepresented students, they argued, the social conditions at the university will deteriorate. 

The passage of Proposition 209, the legislation that banned affirmative action in the UC admissions policy, has created a hostile environment for underrepresented students, they said. 

In 1998, the first year that Proposition 209 took effect, the entering freshman class had 126 African-American students compared with 257 the year prior. The number of Latino entering freshmen dropped from 390 to 191 the same year. By 2004, the entering freshman class had 250 Latinos, but the number of African-American freshman had shrunk to 108. 

“I dread walking into those lecture halls, where I have to defend my right to be, where professors look past me when I raise my hand,” said sophomore Erica Williams, an African-American. “I should feel lucky to be here, but my sense of wonderment about being here, at the finest public university in the world, has disappeared.”  

The group plans to rally Thursday morning at the UC Regents meeting, followed by a march from Clark Kerr campus to Sproul Plaza.  

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who only attended a portion of the hearing, has declared his commitment to addressing inclusion, calling the issue “a moral obligation” and “a fight for the soul of the university.” 

The 2005 admissions figures, Birgeneau’s first year at the helm, show a slight increase in minority enrollment with 18 more African-American freshman, and 94 more Latinos. He has made the issue the centerpiece of his administration, and he has called for a repeal of Proposition 209. 

But, says Pat Hayashi, former UC Berkeley director of admissions, the focus on affirmative action is misguided and doesn’t get at the root of the issue. He doubts that Proposition 209 will ever be overturned. 

“Instead we need to work on the architecture of the eligibility requirements,” said Hayashi in a seminar on campus earlier this fall. The current eligibility system only allows into consideration approximately 4 percent of California’s African-American and Latino high school seniors, he says. 

Ron Williams, spokesperson for the Black Graduate Student Assembly, warned at last week’s hearing that the low numbers of minority enrollment will discourage underrepresented students, even those who meet the eligibility requirements, to consider UC Berkeley. 

“They won’t want to face this isolation and hostility,” he said.  

Two local high school students, both weighing their college options, agreed. 

“My friends ask me why would I want to go to Cal when there won’t be any other blacks there,” said Jocelyn Eastman, a senior at Oakland Tech who is in the process of applying to UC Berkeley. 

After a tour of the campus she is having second thoughts. 

“The first thing I noticed was the segregation,” she said. “Why do everyone’s friends look like each other here?” 

A Berkeley High sophomore compared the diversity he sees in his high school with his perspective on UC Berkeley. 

“It’s a privilege to go to Berkeley High, an integrated school,” said Derwyn Johnson. “It’s too bad you don’t see that here on this campus. ... Even though this campus needs more students like me who will stand up and fight for better minority enrollment numbers, I’m not sure if I want to put myself in such a segregated place.”