California Passes Proposition 209
Proposition 209 — known as Prop 209 or, as it was officially
called, the California Civil Rights Initiative — reverberated
throughout the nation in 1996 when California voters approved it by
more than 54 percent. Higher education officials around the country are
now watching to see what effect, if any, it will have on them —
especially since President Clinton decided to ask the Justice
Department to oppose its implementation.
Prop 209 bans the use of any race-based affirmative action in the
state of California. Shortly after it was passed in November, Chief
U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson stopped enforcement of the
measure on the basis that there was a great likelihood that it would be
declared unconstitutional.
Late,r the ACLU asked the court to prevent the University of
California system, which had not been covered by the court ruling, with
complying with Proposition 209. More rulings are inevitable and
observers believe the issue is not expected to be settled for a couple
of years probably by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Even before the passage of Prop 209, however, the University of
California, under the leadership of Regent Ward Connerly, had been
moving in the direction of eliminating race, ethnicity and gender from
consideration in hiring, contracting and admissions since 1995. As a
result, UC scholarship, outreach and affirmative action programs that
formerly targeted racial and ethnic minorities were reconfigured to
include all economically disadvantaged youth.
Shortly after Prop 209 passed, UC President Richard C. Atkinson
stated: “We are well along in this process as a result of the Regents
action last year eliminating race, gender, and ethnicity as factors in
admission, hiring, and contracting.” Another UC official stated that no
further action was necessary and that unless directed by the courts to
do otherwise, state financial aid on the basis of race, ethnicity or
gender will be eliminated for 1997.
The California State University system and the California Community
College system have decided to maintain their programs until instructed
otherwise by the courts but some question whether the measure will
actually have a large effect on those systems, which have different
admissions systems from the University of California system.
