Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 185, a bill that would allow state universities and colleges to take into account race, gender and household income when considering applicants, on Saturday, citing Proposition 209, a 15-year-old state ban on affirmative action.
SB 185, written by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), would have allowed the Cal State University and the University of California to consider factors such as applicants’ race, gender and household income during the admissions process as long as no preference was given.
The bill made national news after a campus Republican group from UC Berkeley mocked the legislation with an affirmative action bake sale. The students sold baked goods at different prices based on gender and race. The bake sale was said to be “satirical.”
Hernandez said the bill’s intention was not to conflict with Proposition 209, but to increase diversity in public
universities.
“This bill will help restore equal opportunity in California’s higher education system by strengthening outreach efforts to qualified minority students,” Hernandez said in a press release.
According to Mike Uhlenkamp, CSU director of media relations and news media, students would have continued to be admitted into the CSU based on grades and test scores even if the bill was signed by Brown.
“For the most part, our demographic matches the California demographic,” Uhlenkamp said. “So, it’s not going to change the demographic.”
Junior nursing major Khristyne Hassan disagrees with the importance of considering race and gender when admitting a student. Hassan said the focus should be more on a student’s education.
“It’s all about what kind of education mindset you have planned for the school you would like to attend,” Hassan said. “[It’s] not about what race and gender we are just so the school can be diversified.”
Other students also argued that admission should be granted to qualified students regardless of their race, some even question the bill’s fairness.
“I think it’s biased and shouldn’t be based on that,” said Chirstine Pierson, a freshman business major. “You’re in college because of your grades. We should all have to work just as hard.”
Junior civil engineering major Luiza Valle stressed that all students come from different backgrounds.
In addition, she said other factors should be considered in the application process, instead of gender and race.
“I don’t think race should matter, it should be more about how local you are to the campus if anything,” Valle said.
Associated Students Inc. President Lucy Nguyen declined to comment on the issue until the ASI Senate took a position, if any at all, on this legislation.
Although Brown said he agrees with the overall goal of SB 185, he said in a veto message that “signing this bill is unlikely to impact how Proposition 209 is ultimately interpreted by the courts; it will just encourage the 209 advocates to file more costly and confusing lawsuits.”
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