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Monday, 7/21/97 Agency to investigate UC's admissions policy EDUCATION: Minority enrollment drop prompts complaint by coalition

By Matt Grace Daily Bruin Contributor A coalition of California civil rights groups, which have asked the federal government to investigate the Regents' ban on affirmative action, claimed that recent law school admissions provide evidence for discriminatory treatment. The federal Department of Education announced July 14 that they will launch an investigation in response to the complaint filed by the organizations. "The removal of affirmative action from the admission process significantly benefits white and male applicants, said Joseph Jaramillo, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). "The office evaluated the admission data after the complaint and found a significant disparity between Caucasians and African Americans, Latino Americans, and American-Indians," said Jennifer Peck, a spokesperson for the Office of Civil Rights in San Francisco. "There was enough to warrant our response to the inquiry." Under the new admissions policy, one in ten African Americans and one in twenty Latino Americans were admitted to the graduate schools for fall 1997, contrasting to one in four whites. This prompted the federal government to launch a complete investigation of the three graduate schools, Peck said. The office did not find reason to investigate gender discrimination, Peck added. "Examination of federal civil rights will determine whether or not the admission policy violated any federal civil right laws," Peck said. "The federal government intervening will make the Regents think twice about their decision." According to the complaint, the decision violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its educational amendments. Faculty at the law schools, however, deny any wrongdoing and claim they have followed the Regent's resolution to the best of their ability. "We don't feel we have discriminated against anybody," said Andrea Sossin-Bergman, assistant dean of admissions at UCLA. "We have done everything possible to maintain diversity." UC Berkeley complied with the resolution because there was no other choice, said Lujuana Treadwell, Assistant Dean of UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law. "We analyzed our admission process, we made the changes necessary and we went forward," Treadwell added. "The UC campuses made a great effort despite the ban on affirmative action," Peck said. Until the ban is overturned, schools will have to become more creative in trying to maintain diversity, Peck said. Although it is well understood that an investigation will take place, when and by which governmental agency remains to be seen. The only notification by the federal government has been the announcement of plans for an investigation. "Not knowing what the office of civil rights is up to, is hard to say what it all means," said Bruce Wolk, dean of the UC Davis Law School. "They have not really said anything," Wolk added. Although the details about the investigation have not been released, Jaramillo is confident that current admissions criteria is a violation of federal civil rights law. Without the consideration of race and ethnicity as admissions criteria, UC law schools give greater weight to culturally-biased LSAT scores and GPAs from schools with higher reputations, Jaramillo said. This ends up hurting students from schools with high minority enrollment, like Howard University and Cal State University, he continued. Admission officials also give special consideration to individuals who have shown measures of good characters, but do not recognize individuals who overcome racial, ethnic or gender adversity, the complaint letter argued. "Admission officials ignore these hardships, which ends up hurting minorities even more," Jaramillo said. In a worst-case scenario, the investigation could result in the UCs losing the $1.3 billion they receive in federal funding. But such an extreme result is highly unlikely. However, rather than remove federal funding, Jaramillo expects a compromise between the federal government and the UC system. "We have to evaluate the best solution, working with the universities," Jaramillo said. Previous Daily Bruin Story: More students choosing UCs this year, 7/14/97