BERKELEY, Calif. - A top university official, in the wake of a temporary restraining order against Proposition 209, said at last Wednesday night's ASUC meeting that pending legal battles place undergraduate admissions policies in limbo.
"We have an awkward set of circumstances," said Bob Laird, director of undergraduate admissions. "No matter what happens (with Proposition 209), we will be rejecting 18,000 people - many of whom will still feel entitled to a place at UCB because generations of their family have paid California taxes."
"The degree of competition will not change," Laird added. "The level of expectancy will change."
Henderson is set to decide today whether to extend the temporary restraining order to the university. At a scheduled Dec. 16 hearing, Henderson is expected to take the next step and rule on a preliminary injunction against Proposition 209. The possibility of an injunction and an appeal leaves unclear whether weight will be given to the applications of underrepresented minority students.
"We have been advised by general council to wait," Laird said. "The difficulty for us is that we have to evaluate students for their academic and personal achievements. It's a huge, labor-intensive process. We probably can't start until Dec. 16, when we know the policy."
Currently, 50 percent of all new students are admitted solely on the basis of grades and test scores. For the remaining 50 percent, the admissions office takes into account applicants' extracurricular activities, adverse circumstances and disabilities, in addition to race.
Proposition 209 prohibits admission policies that take race into account. While the university's own affirmative action ban is set to take effect for spring 1998 applicants, Proposition 209 moves its implementation forward by one year.
A campus study projected minority students in the UC system would decrease if race preferences were removed from the current system, with the enrollment of black first-year students dropping 54 percent, Latino/a first-year students by 51 percent and Native American students by 60 percent.
Laird added that there would be an 8-percent increase in the enrollment of white students at the university and a 22-percent increase in Asian undergraduates.
"It makes a huge difference for undergraduate admissions this coming year," said Northern California ACLU attorney Ed Chen. "Without 209, these affirmative action policies would continue."
- Distributed by University Wire