It will take a lawsuit to end the racism and bigotry of the UC system. I would hope that Trump can force the firing of those bigots who caused the lawsuits. Since the lawsuit is based on Federal lawsuit, maybe the Trump DOJ will file criminal charges against those involved.
“A group of students last week filed suit against the UC Regents and 35 individuals closely tied to the University of California system, alleging their unlawful use of racial preferences in hiring and higher education admissions, also known as affirmative action.
The suit was filed by Students Against Racial Discrimination, or SARD, a group that publicly opposes affirmative action, or practices that they say “subordinate academic merit to so-called diversity considerations,” according to the complaint. Defendants listed on the complaint include former UC Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ, UC President Michael Drake and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In the complaint, SARD alleges defendants’ violations of Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Equal Protection Clause, federal rules which when combined prohibit race-based discrimination at schools receiving federal funds and during contracting. The complaint says these rules “make no exception for diversity-based affirmative-action programs.”
This is open corruption. Yet the bigots still get a tax funded paycheck to promote hate.
Students sue UC Regents and 35 UC affiliates for alleged racial discrimination
Lily Button | Senior Staff, Daily Californian, 2/10/25 25 https://www.dailycal.org/news/city/law-and-justice/students-sue-uc-regents-and-35-uc-affiliates-for-alleged-racial-discrimination/article_5d77352e-e780-11ef-b9f9-2bea508126aa.html
In the complaint, SARD alleges defendants’ violations of Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Equal Protection Clause, federal rules which when combined prohibit race-based discrimination at schools receiving federal funds and during contracting.
A group of students last week filed suit against the UC Regents and 35 individuals closely tied to the University of California system, alleging their unlawful use of racial preferences in hiring and higher education admissions, also known as affirmative action.
The suit was filed by Students Against Racial Discrimination, or SARD, a group that publicly opposes affirmative action, or practices that they say “subordinate academic merit to so-called diversity considerations,” according to the complaint. Defendants listed on the complaint include former UC Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ, UC President Michael Drake and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In the complaint, SARD alleges defendants’ violations of Title VI, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Equal Protection Clause, federal rules which when combined prohibit race-based discrimination at schools receiving federal funds and during contracting. The complaint says these rules “make no exception for diversity-based affirmative-action programs.”
UC senior media relations officer Omar Rodriguez said information about students’ race and ethnicity is collected for statistical purposes and plays no role in admission decisions.
“We stand by our admission policies and our record of expanding access for all qualified students,” Rodriguez said in an email.
The use of affirmative action in the United States began under former president John F. Kennedy in 1961. Affirmative action became a staple of many institutions’ hiring practices until 1996, when California’s Proposition 209 abolished affirmative action in public sector employment, education and contracting. When the ban took effect at UC Berkeley in 1998, campus saw a 55% reduction from the previous year in admissions for African American, Latinx and Native American students, according to a campus press release that year.
In the complaint, SARD claims the harm of affirmative action is twofold: qualified white and Asian-American students are denied admission and non-Asian racial minorities struggle academically.
At UC Berkeley, the disparity between rates of admission for African American students and the overall average reduced from 8% in 2010 to 2% in 2023, according to the complaint.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore denies the use of racial preference in campus admissions.
“UC Berkeley is committed to admitting and enrolling the best and the brightest students and we do so in compliance with all state, federal and university policies and laws,” Gilmore said in an email.
Tim Groseclose, a former admissions committee member at UCLA cited in the complaint, wrote a book about UCLA’s alleged use of pro-affirmative action practices in admissions.
He said his suspicions began when he requested a random sample of applications for statistical analysis purposes.
“The admissions staff and their bosses refused my request,” Groseclose said in an email. “I strongly suspect that the reason was because they had something to hide.”
UCLA law professor Richard Sander, who is also cited in the complaint, sued three UC law schools in 2014 after they refused to turn over admissions data in 2011.
The law school data was later analyzed by Robert Mare, a UCLA admissions committee member. Mare’s analysis showed increases in non-Asian minority enrollment, which Sander said could not be explained without the consideration of race in admissions. According to Sander, Mare’s data suggests 2,000 students were impacted over a five-year period.
The UC Regents have not responded to the request for comment as of press time, and the UC System denies the allegations.
“We believe this to be a meritless suit that seeks to distract us from our mission to provide California students with a world class education,” Rodriguez said in an email. “Since the consideration of race in admissions was banned in California in 1996, the University of California has adjusted its admissions practices to comply with the law.”
