Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507210061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO LENGTH: Long
The takeover came before regents had a chance to vote on another proposal to end race-based admissions at the nine-campus university system.
The demonstrators pushed to the front of the room where the regents had been wrangling over affirmative action for 11 hours, linked arms and sang the civil rights protest anthem.
Most regents left the room, but some stayed to sing with the demonstrators. Joining the protesters was Democratic Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, a political enemy to Gov. Pete Wilson. The Republican governor has made ending affirmative action programs the centerpiece of his struggling presidential campaign.
Police made no initial move to disperse the protesters.
The vote to halt affirmative action in hiring passed on a 15-10 vote.
Earlier, six people were arrested on civil disobedience charges and a bomb threat forced an evacuation of the meeting room for 40 minutes as the regents neared the first vote.
Wilson tried to set the terms for debate at the start of the meeting from his vantage point as president of the panel.
``Are we going to treat all Californians equally and fairly? Or are we going to continue to divide Californians by race?'' he asked.
But Jesse Jackson, himself a potential presidential candidate, urged regents not to drop race-based admissions.
``The consequence of going backwards is the loss of hope, the furthering of despair, the hardening of cynicism we can ill afford,'' Jackson said in an emotional 45-minute address.
In Washington on Thursday, congressional Republicans grilled the Clinton administration's civil rights chief about minority set-asides, apparently in search of a place to begin dismantling affirmative action programs.
Deval Patrick, assistant attorney general for civil rights, spent the bulk of his testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee explaining affirmative action in the context of President Clinton's new directive and recent Supreme Court rulings.
``We don't intend to abandon common sense,'' Patrick said. ``The president recognizes, as the courts have, that the goal ... is not affirmative action. The goal is equal opportunity.''
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, a GOP presidential candidate, has promised to introduce a bill next week that would eradicate affirmative action programs.
UC's nine campuses select between 40 percent and 60 percent of students on grades alone. The rest are judged on grades and supplemental factors, including race and special skills.
As Jackson left, he made a point of pushing to Wilson's seat and shaking his hand. Wilson rose and the two spoke for a moment, the taciturn governor smiling faintly. Seventy people addressed the regents, who began discussing the issue late in the afternoon.
During the debate, about 500 demonstrators marched and chanted, and some were let inside to watch the proceeding on television monitors. One hanged Wilson in effigy. Another wore a shirt saying ``PETE - Public Enemy To Education.''
About 300 law officers stood by.
Five people, including the Rev. Cecil Williams, a San Francisco activist, were arrested when they sat in the entrance to the UC Laurel Heights campus and refused to move. Jackson, who had pledged to commit civil disobedience if necessary, wasn't among those arrested.
As police led the five away, about 300 people crowded around, chanting, ``Justice yes, Wilson no.''
Another person was arrested for refusing to move aside for police.
Outside, the only sign of support for ending affirmative action was a plane towing a sign that said ``End Race and Gender Based Preferences Now.''
``Put an end to the madness,'' thundered Republican Assemblyman Bernie Richter, urging the board of regents to adopt the proposals. ``We must rededicate ourselves to ending government-enforced racism before it tears our society apart.''
``Don't rush to judgment,'' countered Democratic Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, urging regents to put off a vote.
The meeting begat a series of demonstrations, speeches and a student-regent forum Wednesday, with nearly 1,000 people packing a church for an emotional rally.
Anti-affirmative action forces said favoring one group over another won't work because it is using one injustice to try to rectify another.
Affirmative action supporters said while a color-blind system sounds fair, it doesn't take into account the realities of being a minority in a racially fractured society.
The proposals put forward by regent Ward Connerly, a black Wilson appointee, would drop affirmative action hiring policies by January 1996 and taking race out of student admission formulas by January 1997.
UC's nine campuses select between 40 percent and 60 percent of students on grades alone. The rest are judged on grades and supplemental factors, including race and special skills.
SAN FRANCISCO - Leaders of the University of California found themselves Thursday in the cross hairs of affirmative action forces, taking up the volatile issue with 500 people demonstrating outside.
Six people were arrested on civil disobedience charges as the Board of Regents considered whether to drop race as a factor in admitting students to the nine-campus state system. A bomb threat forced an evacuation of the meeting room, stopping the regents as they neared a vote.
Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who has made repealing affirmative action a key plank of his presidential campaign, tried to set the terms for debate at the start of the meeting from his vantage point as president of the panel.
``Are we going to treat all Californians equally and fairly? Or are we going to continue to divide Californians by race?'' he asked.
But Jesse Jackson, himself a potential presidential candidate, urged regents not to drop race-based admissions.
``The consequence of going backwards is the loss of hope, the furthering of despair, the hardening of cynicism we can ill afford,'' Jackson said in an emotional 45-minute address.
About 500 demonstrators marched and chanted. Five people, including the Rev. Cecil Williams, a San Francisco activist, were arrested when they sat in the entrance to the UC Laurel Heights campus and refused to move. As police led the five away, about 300 people crowded around, chanting, ``Justice yes, Wilson no.''
Outside, the only sign of support for ending affirmative action was a plane towing a sign that said ``End Race and Gender Based Preferences Now.''
In Washington on Thursday, congressional Republicans grilled the Clinton administration's civil rights chief about minority set-asides, apparently in search of a place to begin dismantling affirmative action programs.
Deval Patrick, assistant attorney general for civil rights, spent the bulk of his testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee explaining affirmative action in the context of President Clinton's new directive and recent Supreme Court rulings.
``We don't intend to abandon common sense,'' Patrick said. ``The president recognizes, as the courts have, that the goal ... is not affirmative action. The goal is equal opportunity.''
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, a GOP presidential candidate, has promised to introduce a bill next week that would eradicate affirmative action programs.
UC's nine campuses select between 40 percent and 60 percent of students on grades alone. The rest are judged on grades and supplemental factors, including race and special skills.
and some were let inside to watch the proceeding on television monitors. One hanged Wilson in effigy. Another wore a shirt saying ``PETE - Public Enemy To Education.'' About 300 law officers stood by.
As Jackson left, he made a point of pushing to Wilson's seat and shaking his hand. Wilson rose and the two spoke for a moment, the governor smiling faintly.
``Put an end to the madness,'' thundered Republican Assemblyman Bernie Richter, urging the board of regents to adopt the proposals. ``We must rededicate ourselves to ending government-enforced racism before it tears our society apart.''
``Don't rush to judgment,'' countered Democratic Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, urging regents to put off a vote.
Jackson, who had pledged to commit civil disobedience if necessary, wasn't among those arrested. Another person was arrested for refusing to move aside for police.
Anti-affirmative action forces in California said favoring one group over another won't work because it is using one injustice to try to rectify another.
Affirmative action supporters said while a color-blind system sounds fair, it doesn't take into account the realities of being a minority in a racially fractured society.
The proposals put forward by regent Ward Connerly, a black Wilson appointee, would drop affirmative action hiring policies by January 1996 and taking race out of student admission formulas by January 1997.
GOP Grills Civil Rights Official About Set-Asides|
|By SONYA ROSS| |Associated Press Writer| WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Republicans grilled the Clinton administration's civil rights chief about minority set-asides Thursday, apparently in search of a place to begin dismantling affirmative action programs.
Deval Patrick, assistant attorney general for civil rights, spent the bulk of his testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee explaining affirmative action in the context of President Clinton's new directive and recent Supreme Court rulings.
``We don't intend to abandon common sense,'' Patrick said. ``The president recognizes, as the courts have, that the goal ... is not affirmative action. The goal is equal opportunity.''
Giving a clue to the direction their legislation might take, GOP members focused on a case from Piscataway, N.J., in which the Justice Department switched sides.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, a GOP presidential candidate, has promised to introduce a bill next week that would eradicate affirmative action programs. He is working along with Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., chairman of the Constitution subcommittee that convened Thursday's hearing.
Dole has sharply criticized the Clinton administration for its reversal in the Piscataway case.
Two years ago, the Justice Department sued the Piscataway school board on behalf of a white teacher who was furloughed in favor of a black teacher with equal qualifications. The case was brought by the Bush administration and prosecuted by the Clinton administration before Patrick was nominated.
Under Patrick, the Justice Department decided to back the school board in its appeal, arguing that a lower court judgment in favor of the white teacher was wrong.
On Thursday, Patrick was asked to make distinctions between quotas and set-asides. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., asked whether a stated goal of ``diversity'' justified firing someone ``because they are not a member of the black race.''
``If a set-aside is, in theory or in practice, an exclusive reservation of opportunity for particular individuals ... then that is problematic,'' Patrick said. ``But what we saw in the president's review is very, very few programs actually operate that way.''
Clinton vigorously defended affirmative action in a speech Wednesday, saying race and gender preferences are fair and effectively remove obstacles that have blocked opportunities for minorities and women.
He ordered the elimination or overhaul of any program that ``creates a quota, creates preferences for unqualified individuals, creates reverse discrimination or continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have been achieved.'' He also issued a directive to federal departments and a 100-page report advocating reforms to ensure that programs benefit those who need help the most.
Canady wondered why set-asides are not considered quotas and whether the Justice Department ought to re-evaluate its position in the Piscataway case.
Clint Bolick, litigation director for the conservative Institute for Justice, said Patrick has ``thumbed his nose'' at Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action, and is forcing his own view of diversity ``upon the rest of us in the guise of civil rights.''
``If Patrick succeeds in introducing the concept of `diversity' as a justification for racial preferences, it will remove any meaningful limits on government's power to engage in reverse discrimination,'' Bolick testified.
But Theodore M. Shaw, assistant director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said associating affirmative action with reverse discrimination takes the debate on race to an ``Orwellian'' level and would do little for true victims of bias.
``Many of us act and talk as if the history of discrimination in this country is, oddly, a history of discrimination against white people,'' Shaw said. ``That's not reverse discrimination. It is simply plain discrimination, not the same as being affected by an affirmative action program.''
by CNB