UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau
Hey, Honkey, you oughtta give up your job to an underprivileged minority. It's only fair, right?
Posted on 04/08/2005 1:04:28 PM PDT by SmithL
UC Berkeley's new chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, sounded the opening priority for his administration Thursday by issuing a call to action on a student diversity crisis at the highly ranked university.
Citing the drop in under-represented minorities on campus, especially African Americans, Birgeneau called for research into refining admissions standards and finding the best ways to create a more multicultural campus.
"Part of what I'm trying to accomplish as a new chancellor here is to say this really is a crisis," Birgeneau said in outlining his agenda to reporters at a campus faculty club.
Birgeneau's diversity campaign -- including an op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times on March 27 -- represents his first major public initiative since becoming chancellor in September. The former University of Toronto president will have his formal inauguration ceremony on April 15.
"We're not meeting our obligation as a public institution because we're underserving in an extreme way a significant and increasingly important part of the population, which actually is going to be the majority population," he said.
Birgeneau blamed the drop in numbers on Proposition 209, the 1996 voter- approved initiative that banned affirmative action based on race and gender for state and local agencies, including the university.
The number of African Americans in Cal's 1996-97 freshman class, before Prop. 209 took effect, was 260, while the 2004-05 class has only 108, with fewer than 40 males, he said.
"Out of 3,600 freshman students, that's just a shocking number," he said.
Even more striking, he said, is that there is not even one African American among the approximately 800 entering students in engineering, ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hey, Honkey, you oughtta give up your job to an underprivileged minority. It's only fair, right?
Diversity problem at Berkeley? What? Not enough Asians? Oh wait, nevermind. Asians are one of those minority groups that don't count since we do too well.
Also, just because they can't get into UC Berzerkley, doesn't mean that they can't get into college. Look at UC Riverside where I'm currently going to. Plenty of minorities here. White, Asian, Latino, Blacks, you name it, they're here in significant numbers.
what seems to be the problem, test scores going up?
Exactly. And when test scores go up without the Affirmative Action stupidity, it discredits the leftist agenda.
Yeah. It's even worse: he's from Toronto.
He needs to be sent back. Badly.
This is the challenge for Mistah Ah-Nuld. He needs to get control of not just the budget, or the state employees unions, but guys like this. And make them gone.
If he could pull that off, he'd be a success.
Let's make the NFL,NBA and MLB also mirror the demographic mix. Fat chance. These rules only apply when the liberals want them.
Only if it means that white people will not be admitted. Or maybe even Asians.
Don't worry about underrepresentation of minorities in the state's premier educational institution -- the same minorities are equally overrepresented in the state's premier correctional institution.
It all work out for the bes'.
Diversity only applies to OTHER people and their kids.
"I'm really black. My Grandma told me so. No, wait. I'm actually Native American and I can prove it. Ward Churchill's Grandma told me so. Hey Americans, isn't it great that a minority like me can bring in over $300K/year. P.T. Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute. Heck, it's a lot more than that in California. Ha Ha Ha.
Why?
What is the evidence that a "more multicultural campus" confers any benefit on anyone?
Some years ago the California legislature mandated that students graduate from Berkeley in proportion to their numbers in the student body, but the then-governor, a Republican, vetoed it.
A more multicultural campus confers clear benefits on one group of people--administrators in charge of affirmative action.
Yeah, but Asians sure love the SBA set aside programs. And they DO benefit from AA in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
BTW: When I was at U of Chicago, it was about 42% Asian. As a white gentile, I WAS A MINORITY. Did I care? NO! I was there to LEARN goddamit!
I was thinking just a little bit more diabolically. One can now obtain "Ancestry DNA" testing. No telling what possible URM/"underrepresented minority" genes might lurk in our DNA!
(Yes, it's a crapshoot, but application to schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton is anyway, even for applicants with 1600 SATs!)
Universities would be able to increase diversity and the proportion of "non-white" students in their student body without doing anything at all!
Here's the view from the CalPatriot, Cal's conservative newspaper. And I just have to Fisk the three stooges.
Pushing the legal limits Dean Edley, Chancellor Birgenau plan to take on Prop 209
Why don't you focus on providing an excellent education for your students?
Story by Andrew R. Quinio
From the April 2005 Print Edition
The use of race-based admissions preferences, a type of affirmative action, was a major topic of discussion at the UC Berkeley Diversity Forum held on March 3.
“We are a great university in a state that has made a terrible mistake,” keynote speaker Boalt Law School Dean Christopher Edley Jr. said about the 1996 Proposition 209, which banned racial preferences in state and public entities. Edley sought a thorough study of Proposition 209 in order to determine how the university could “push the envelope of Prop. 209 compliance.” He continued, “I’ve been warned that there is a lot of identity politics on campus. It won’t be the end of the world that a few people get offended, provided we focus on being inclusive.”
He plans on offending the rednecks white folks and their honorary white lackies, the Asians.
The UC Berkeley Diversity Forum, which hosted students, faculty, and experts on “diversity,” revealed plans by Edley and others in the UC administration to legally circumvent Proposition 209.
Ah, isn't this taxpayer funded political activity? And why not follow the law, rather than find ways to get around it?
Each of the main speakers expressed his dismay with the voter-backed measure that eliminated state-sponsored racial profiling in California’s public universities. Participants contributed their thoughts and ideas about how to expand diversity, and heard a panel of speakers who were experts in ethnicity, equality, and racial issues.
The forum was assembled because of a recommendation from the Academic Senate’s Diversity Project Coordinating Committee, which was created in the spring of 2003 to develop a set of proposals on how diversity could be achieved. The forum featured the keynote address by Edley, who worked previously as the national issues director for Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaign, and later served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton,
Gee, I'm so surprised. I would have guessed he worked for Reagan and Bush41.
directing a White House review of affirmative action. He is the co-founder of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, a think tank focusing on racial justice.
Professional race-hustler, great.
Accompanying his speech with a PowerPoint slide presentation, Edley revealed his plans to introduce to Berkeley a project similar to the Harvard Civil Rights Project. Race-based preferences for academic admissions were not excluded from this project. He declared, “Diversity — or, as I prefer to all it, ‘inclusivity’
Liberals destroyed the perfectly good word 'liberal', now the unwashed see through 'diversity', so they have to move on to a new word.
— is a critical component of excellence.” Edley elaborated, “Race is harder than rocket science.”
That's why he makes the big bucks.
Edley listed several reasons that diversity has been hindered in California, opining, “fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, we still can’t get it right.” He cited the obstacles of bureaucracy and added that the policies of Reagan and the era of McCarthyism “had enormous repercussions.” He also cited the “regulatory trauma of the No Child Left Behind Act,” which has allegedly damaged diversity.
"We" still can't get "it" right. WTF? McCarthyism is still at it and link it to Reagan. For Pete's sake, "regulatory trauma"? How has "No Child Left Behind" affected admissions to Berkeley. It hasn't been in existence long enough. Perhaps Birgenau can use his Physics knowledge to explain how "NCLB" has affected people faster than time or the speed of light.
Edley shared with the audience several titles that the new diversity institute could bear. He proffered, “The Berkeley Civil Rights Institute,” “Institute for Race, Ethnicity, and Policy,” and more facetiously, “Colored Folks and Their Friends.” The last title received uproarious laughter from the audience.
Edley, he such a card. I'm rolling on the floor.
Edley then proposed the California Diversity Initiative, a piece of public policy that would address racial justice. The initiative would be researched and created by the impending Berkeley Civil Rights Institute. The Institute would also look at the “unequal treatment of citizens within the health care system, immigration-policy reform, measurements of discrimination, and environmental justice.”
Isn't this political action again? What happened to education?
Academic Senate Chair Robert Knapp followed up with his remarks. On the causes of the lack of diversity, he proclaimed, “we have met the enemy and the enemy is us.” Knapp continued with optimism saying, “The diversity project offers hope.”
Well, the third stooge finally got something right, he and his gang are the enemy.
Chancellor Robert Birgeneau gave the closing remarks. He mentioned that many of his colleagues liken his position to a chief executive officer or CEO. Birgeneau said, “I would prefer that CEO stood for Chief Equality Officer.”
Okay Mister Equality, why don't you cut your pay to the average of Californians, cut your age and IQ and lifestyle to that of the average? In fact, whitey, why don't you give your job to a black man?
He too expressed his disappointment in Proposition 209, and also sought ways to work around it. “We need to test the legal limits, to find what is and isn’t possible under 209 … we must be prepared to get our hands slapped.” The chancellor ended with the message that diversity, or “inclusion,” was a “fight for our souls.”
Working around the law, again. Planning to violate the law and getting his hands slapped. Sounds like pre-mediation to me, would make for a great law suit for someone discriminated against. And is this the role of a University Chancellor?
Heheh. Pretty much. Though since it's been raining more, smog isn't as bad right now.
BTW, we just set up a College Republican club here last year during the elections, and in those short six months, we are pissing off the Libs here (in the Socialist paper here, they claim that we were inciting violence since we crashed their anti-war anti-American protest. Yeah, apparently offering a different opinion is inciting violence [this coming from a group that put up some hate comments on the official UCR College Republican club like "Kill all White People!" Apparently we evil College Republicans will just go away if all the white people died. Nevermind the fact that I'm Asian]).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.