2-2005

Thursday, March 3rd, 2005 Day of Action

Reverse the Drop in Underrepresented Minority Enrollment at UC-Berkeley!


Endorsed by BAMN, Graduate Assembly, Oscar Wilde House (LGBT-themed co-op) council, AFT Local 771 teachers union, and more than 350 professors!

10:00AM University-sponsored forum: "Diversity in Action: Leading the Nation through Research and Practice," Pauley Ballroom, 3rd Floor, MLK Student Union, UCB
12:00PM RALLY at SPROUL PLAZA
1:00PM MARCH!
Afternoon "Diversity in Action…" Breakout sessions, Pauley Ballroom
3:30PM "Diversity in Action…" Keynote address by Christopher Edley, Dean of Boalt Law School, and a statement by Chancellor Birgeneau, Pauley Ballroom

CONGRATULATIONS to the more than 15,000 people who signed the petition and were part of the fight to remove Ward Connerly! The new civil rights movement has succeeded in removing the national frontman for the attack on affirmative action from the UC Regents. Once again, students have shown that the efforts and convictions of a dynamic and growing movement that speaks for the historical interests of an awakening mass of people can change history.

FOUR STEPS

that Chancellor Birgeneau and the UCB administration can take:

1. Issue a public statement declaring the plain and obvious truth: the anti-affirmative action Proposition 209 has had tragic consequences for UCB, and the various post-209 UC outreach efforts and admissions gimmicks have failed to achieve diversity without meaningful affirmative action efforts. The University of California can no longer pursue its educational mission of serving all Californians and establishing a diverse campus without affirmative action.
2. Declare that a top priority of the new administration is reversing the drop in underrepresented minority enrollment, and that he will use every measure possible under the law to do this.
3. Outline specific policies that concretize this declaration of commitment.
4. Ensure that undergraduate admissions officers and graduate and professional programs may do everything they legally can to address the lack of underrepresented minority students, including any measures that other UC campuses have so far used more aggressively than Berkeley.

This victory opens up an opportunity for the movement to end the resegregation and increased racism that Connerly has brought to the UC system. This is the year that UCB students can finally win a real reversal of the drop in underrepresented minority enrollment.

The window of opportunity for students to change the direction of the university is NOW. Chancellor Birgeneau and the UCB administration are making admissions decisions over the next several weeks. Thursday, March 3 will be a Day of Education and Action to reverse the drop in underrepresented minority enrollment at UCBerkeley and demand integration and equality in California. All supporters of affirmative action must mobilize the full power of the movement by furthering the process of mass education and organizing many students to come out on the day.

In 2003, after a years-long national student led movement culminating in a 50,000-person march for affirmative action, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that the use of race to achieve diversity in higher education is a "compelling state interest." Chancellor Birgeneau should use the sanction provided by Grutter to reinstitute effective affirmative action policies and reverse the drop in underrepresented minority student enrollment (see box).

To win, students must circulate the petition to reverse the drop far and wide. We need thousands more signatures. The petition is a way to extend the movement to other individuals, colleges, high schools, student clubs, unions, churches, and organizations throughout California. We must organize teach-ins and forums to tell the truth about the discriminatory impact of UC's admissions criteria and the segregation and inequality which structure American society that necessitate affirmative action.

Reversing the drop at UCB, which has been the campus at the center of the affirmative action battle, will be a crucial victory for the movement and will set the stage for us to take on and defeat Prop 209. This spring can be a turning point for the fight for equality in California.

On March 3rd we will declare: WE WON'T GO BACK! UC-Berkeley is a public university and must open its doors to all the people of this state! California must no longer be the nation's leader in resegregation and racist attacks. It must lead the way for progress. Reversing the drop at UCB will open a new period of gains for civil rights and equality.

BAMN Meetings:
Every Thursday, 7:00 PM
247 Dwinelle Hall, UCB

california@bamn.com
(510) 502-9072
 

More than 350 Professors

Declare Support for Reversing the Drop in Underrepresented Minority Enrollment and March 3rd Day of Action

Students: Please circulate this among your professors.
 

"We are educators. The State of California has entrusted us, professors, lecturers, and staff of the University of California, with the duty of educating California's next generation to become the future leaders of this state. However, the resegregation that is occurring within the UC system has made it impossible for us to fulfill our educational mission.

If you agree with this statement, please send the following info to rtcruz@berkeley.edu:

Your Name, Position, Department, College or University Affiliation, Phone No., E-Mail Address.

(Student and community organizations are also encouraged to endorse.)

"The end of affirmative action has created a two-tier system of education within our midst. In 1997, the end of affirmative action set in motion a disastrous decline in underrepresented minority enrollment at UC-Berkeley. When the UC Regents reversed their ban on affirmative action in response to student and faculty protest on May 16, 2001, they claimed that they were "restoring the welcome mat" for black, Latino, and other minority students. However, the numbers of underrepresented minority students at UC-Berkeley have continued to decline.

"Whereas more than 42% of California's high school graduates are black, Latina/o, or Native American, these groups make up only 12.6% of Berkeley's incoming freshmen. This is unacceptable and fundamentally unjust - as a public university, we are mandated to serve the people of California, which is now a majority-minority state.

"The stifling reality of segregated classrooms has created an unbearable situation for faculty and students, particularly underrepresented minority students. If the UC System itself is tainted by the segregation and racial inequality that have too long poisoned our national life, a stamp of hypocrisy is placed on our entire project, despite our sincere and diligent efforts.

"It is in this spirit that we join students in declaring our support for the Day of Action to Reverse the Drop in Underrepresented Minority Enrollment at UC-Berkeley to be held March 3, 2005. We now have an opportunity to reverse the crisis in underrepresented minority enrollment. This opportunity has been brought about by the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark June 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which declared that affirmative action programs could be used in higher education nationwide and that educational diversity is a compelling state interest.

"On March 3, we will call for the utilization of all possible measures to reverse the drop in underrepresented minority enrollment, including greatly expanded recruitment, admissions, and retention efforts and the use of meaningful affirmative action policies. We will show our support in a number of ways - canceling class, replacing normal curriculum with discussion on affirmative action, or encouraging our students to attend Day of Action events.

"March 3 can mark a turning point for the UC System and for California. We invite all our colleagues, students, and staff to join us in our protest, to take a stand alongside us on March 3, 2005 and demand that UC-Berkeley reverse the drop now." *

* The following is a partial list of UC-Berkeley professors who have signed so far (department names are for identification purposes only):
Ian Duncan, Chair and Prof, English, UCB
Bill Hanks, Chair and Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Stephen Hinshaw, Chair and Prof, Psychology, UCB
Mary Lovelace O'Neal, Chair and Prof, Art Practice, UCB
W. Mike Martin, Chair and Prof, Architecture, UCB
Michael Omi, Chair and Assoc Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
P. David Pearson, Dean and Prof, Education, UCB
Stephen Small, Chair and Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Elizabeth Abel, Prof, English, UCB
Janet Adelman, Prof, English, UCB
Ayse Agis, Lecturer, Women's Studies, UCB
Norma Alarcon, Prof, Ethnic Studies & Women's Studies & Spanish & Portuguese, UCB
Robert Allen, Adjunct Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
James Anderson, Assoc Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Alfred Arteaga, Assoc Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Ann Aurelia Lopez, Post-Doc Researcher, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UCB
Paola Bacchetta, Assoc Prof, Women's Studies, UCB
Ann Banfield, Prof, English, UCB
Andrew Barlow, Visiting Assoc Prof, Sociology, UCB
Gibor Basri, Prof, Astronomy, UCB
Patricia Berger, Assoc Prof, History of Art and Group in Buddhist Studies, UCB
Emilie Bergmann, Prof, Spanish, UCB
Howard Bernal, Prof Emeritus, Integrative Biology, UCB
Gerald Berreman, Prof Emeritus, Anthropology, UCB
Jack Block, Prof, Psychology, UCB
Rebecca Bodenheimer, Grad Student, Music, UCB
Karl Britto, Assoc Prof, French & Comparative Literature, UCB
Wendy Brown, Prof, Political Science, UCB
Patricia Buffler, Prof, Public Health, UCB
Michael Burawoy, Prof, Sociology, UCB
Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Prof, Rhetoric & Comparative Literature & Women's Studies, UCB
Richard Candida Smith, Prof, History, UCB
Claudia Carr, Assoc Prof, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UCB
Brandi Catanese, Asst Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Antoinette Chevalier, Lecturer, English, UCB
Lifang Chiang, Doctoral Student, Geography, UCB
Margaret Chowning, Prof, History, UCB
VeVe Clark, Assoc Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Scott Combs, Grad Student, Film & Rhetoric, UCB
Margaret Conkey, Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Bridget Connelly, Prof Emerita, Rhetoric, UCB
Christy Dana, Lecturer, Music, UCB
Clelia Donovan, Lecturer, Spanish & Portuguese, UCB
Troy Duster, Chancellor's Prof, Sociology, UCB
Lauren Edelman, Prof, Law & Sociology, UCB
William Ellis, Jr., Prof Emeritus, Architecture, UCB
Susan Ervin-Tripp, Prof Emerita, Psychology, UCB
Marilyn Fabe, Lecturer, Film Studies, UCB
Sally Fairfax, Vaux Distinguished Prof, Forest Policy, UCB
Jerome Feldman, Prof, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, UCB
Mariane Ferme, Assoc Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Louise Fortmann, Prof, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UCB
Anne-Lise Francois, Asst Prof, English, UCB
Hardy Frye, Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Maryl Gearhart, Adjunct Assoc Prof, Education, UCB
Leigh Gilmore, Visiting Prof, Women's Studies, UCB
Bluma Goldstein, Prof Emerita, German, UCB
Marcial Gonzalez, Asst Prof, English, UCB
Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Assoc Prof, History of Art, UCB
Paul Groth, Prof, Geography, UCB
Jocelyne Guilbault, Prof, Music, UCB
Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Prof, Ecosystem Science, UCB
Ian Haney Lopez, Prof, Law, UCB
Angela Harris, Prof, Law, UCB
Gillian Hart, Prof, Geography, UCB
Brian Harvey, Lecturer, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, UCB
Yoko Hasegawa, Assoc Prof, East Asian Languages and Cultures, UCB
Linda Haverty Rugg, Assoc Prof, Scandinavian, UCB
Cori Hayden, Asst Prof, Anthropology, UCB
David Henkin, Assoc Prof, History, UCB
Charles Henry, Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Hubert Ho, PhD Candidate, Music, UCB
Adam Hochschild, Lecturer, Journalism, UCB
Jacqueline Jung, Asst Prof, History of Art, UCB
Alexander Kahn, Grad Student, Music, UCB
Caroline Kane, Prof in Residence, Molecular and Cell Biology, UCB
Bill Kastenberg, Prof, Nuclear Engineering, UCB
Mary Kelsey, Lecturer, Sociology, UCB
Chris Knaus, Lecturer, African American Studies, UCB
Liza Kramer, Lecturer, English, UCB
Chana Kronfeld, Prof, Near Eastern Studies & Comparative Literature, UCB
Leslie Kurke, Prof, Classics & Comparative Literature, UCB
Yasmin Lambie-Simpson, Asst Director of Programs, International House, UCB
Jean Lave, Prof Emerita, Social and Cultural Studies in Education, UCB
Nancy Lemon, Lecturer, Law, UCB
William Lester, Prof, Chemistry, UCB
James Lincoln, Spieker Prof of Leadership, Business, UCB
Michael Lucey, Prof, French & Comparative Literature, UCB
Saba Mahmood, Asst Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Asst Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Peter Manoleas, Lecturer, Social Welfare, UCB
Beatriz Manz, Prof, Geography & Ethnic Studies, UCB
Rita Maran, Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Studies & Peace and Conflict Studies, UCB
Waldo Martin, Prof, History, UCB
Francine Masiello, Prof, Spanish & Comparative Literature, UCB
David Matza, Prof Emeritus, Sociology, UCB
Carolyn Merchant, Prof, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UCB
Hélène Mialet, Visiting Asst Prof, Rhetoric, UCB
Trinh Minh-ha, Prof, Women's Studies & Rhetoric, UCB
David Montejano, Assoc Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Dawne Moon, Asst Prof, Sociology, UCB
Joel Moskowitz, Director, Center for Family and Community Health, Public Health, UCB
Deirdre Mulligan, Acting Clinical Prof, Law and Director of Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, UCB
Daphne Muse, Collections and Development Consultant, Bancroft Library, UCB
Laura Nader, Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Prof, Gender & Women's Studies & Ethnic Studies, UCB
J. B. Neilands, Prof Emeritus, Biochemistry, UCB
Paula Nesbitt, Visiting Assoc Prof, Sociology, UCB
Ugo Nwokeji, Asst Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Aihwa Ong, Prof, Anthropology & Southeast Asian Studies, UCB
Lourdes Parra, Lecturer, Chicano Studies, UCB
Colleen Pearl, Grad Student, Rhetoric, UCB
Allan Pred, Prof, Geography, UCB
Jose Rabasa, Prof, Spanish & Portuguese, UCB
Leigh Raiford, Asst Prof, African American Studies, UCB
Julio Ramos, Prof, Spanish & Portuguese, UCB
David Raulet, Prof, Molecular & Cell Biology, UCB
Raka Ray, Assoc Prof, Sociology, UCB
Victoria Robinson, Lecturer, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Celia Rodriguez, Lecturer, Chicano Studies, UCB
Jesus Rodriguez Velasco, Assoc Prof, Spanish & Portuguese, UCB
Jeff Romm, Prof, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UCB
Beth Roy, Instructor, Peace & Conflict Studies, UCB
Amy Rust, GSI, Rhetoric & Film Studies, UCB
Gayle Salamon, Lecturer, Women's Studies, UCB
Alex Saragoza, Assoc Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
William Schaefer, Asst Prof, East Asian Languages and Cultures, UCB
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Prof, Anthropology, UCB
Charles Schwartz, Prof Emeritus, Physics, UCB
Susan Schweik, Assoc Prof, English, UCB
Jeff Selbin, Lecturer, Law, UCB
Junichi Semitsu, Lecturer, African American Studies, UCB
Kaja Silverman, Prof, Rhetoric & Film Studies, UCB
Dan Slobin, Prof Emeritus, Psychology & Linguistics, UCB
Sandra Smith, Asst Prof, Sociology, UCB
Rebecca Solnit, Visiting Lecturer, Journalism, UCB
Dan Stamper-Kurn, Asst Prof, Physics, UCB
David Stark, General Director, Stiles Hall, UCB
Alan Steinbach, Clinic Prof, Public Health, UCB
Tyler Stovall, Prof, History, UCB
Hertha Sweet Wong, Assoc Prof, English, UCB
Hoang Tan Nguyen, GSI, Film Studies, UCB
Stuart Tannock, Lecturer, Education, UCB
Mark Tanouye, Prof, Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, UCB
Annika Thiem, Grad Student, Rhetoric, UCB
Charis Thompson, Asst Prof, Rhetoric & Women's Studies, UCB
Barrie Thorne, Prof, Women's Studies and Sociology, UCB
Christina von Hodenberg, Visiting Asst Prof, History, UCB
Richard Walker, Prof, Geography, UCB
Anne Walsh, Asst Prof, Art Practice, UCB
Errol Watson, Lab Technician, Molecular and Cell Biology, UCB
Michael Watts, Prof, Geography, UCB
David Weisblat, Prof, Cell and Developmental Biology, UCB
Kristen Whissel, Asst Prof, Film Studies, UCB
Marcy Whitebook, Researcher, Center for Study of Child Care Employment, UCB
Linda Williams, Prof, Rhetoric & Film Studies, UCB
Mark Wilson, Lecturer, Sociology, UCB
W. Daniel Wilson, Prof, German, UCB
Michael Wintroub, Assoc Prof, Rhetoric, UCB
Leon Wofsy, Prof Emeritus, Molecular & Cell Biology/Immunology, UCB
Sau-Ling Wong, Prof, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Kerry Woodward, GSI, Sociology, UCB
Keiko Yamanaka, Lecturer, Ethnic Studies, UCB