Prop. 209 had impact on UC hiring

By Cynthia Lee

While the numbers of underrepresented students at California's most competitive public universities went into a decline after Proposition 209 was passed by voters in 1996, there was also a lesser-known impact: a drop in the number of underrepresented faculty that were hired by UC campuses.

However, the hiring of underrepresented faculty that fell off during 1996-2000 — after the regents passed SP-1 and SP-2 and after voters approved Proposition 209 — is making a slow recovery, although the numbers still remain small and have not yet reached pre-209 levels.

During a symposium Oct. 26 held at the Faculty Center, Rosina Becerra, UCLA's vice provost of faculty diversity and development and the chair of the UC President's Task Force on Faculty Diversity in 2005-06, provided a statistical snapshot of how minority faculty hiring levels changed before and after 209 became state law. She participated in a panel as part of the symposium, "Economic Opportunity in California: The Labor and Employment Impact of Prop. 209," organized by the California Coalition to Analyze the Impact of Proposition 209 and co-sponsored by campus departments and student organizations.

The number of new hires among underrepresented faculty dropped off in 1996-2000 for a number of reasons, Becerra said. "I think it gave those who didn't support diversity anyway a reason not to." But those years also marked a period when overall UC faculty hiring was low.

"So it was a period of scarce resources, combined with a reason not to have to look outside the usual methods of hiring. Those two things helped speak to why it was so low," Becerra said.

In recent years, there has been a small growth trend in hiring that Becerra attributed to a number of changes, in particular, a new focus on using the availability rate — based on the size of the pool of available Ph.D.s in each field — as a guideline whenever a faculty search is initiated.

"We now try to make sure that the search pools are broad and inclusive," Becerra said. "We are not able to ask anyone to hire on the basis of race, ethnicity or gender." But the question of whether a pool of candidates approaches the availability rate for Ph.D.s in a particular field can be addressed, she said.

Currently, Ph.D. production is undergoing a change demographically. While white males still make up the majority of new Ph.D.s, the percentage has declined, from 68% in 1975 to 40% in 2003. For white women, the numbers have gone up, from 21% in 1975 to 39% in 2003. It has also risen for underrepresented men and women, from 5% in 1975 to 12% in 2003.

Another panelist, Bob Laird, former director of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley and author of the book, "The Case for Affirmative Action in University Admissions," predicted that Proposition 209 will have a major economic impact on the state as California struggles to fill the workforce gap left when increasing numbers of underrepresented high school graduates cannot get into its flagship campuses.

But there are some grounds for optimism, he pointed out. One hopeful sign was UCLA's turnaround of a decline in the enrollment of black freshmen this fall. Laird praised the work of the Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies and such individuals as alumni leader Peter Taylor, who helped to establish private student scholarships.

Another good sign, Laird said, is a proposal now under consideration by the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools to drop the SAT II subject examinations requirement, which, he said, has been "a huge barrier to underrepresented students."

Panelist Mandla Kayise, an educator, consultant and university relations chair for the UCLA Black Alumni Association, said Proposition 209 has diminished the appreciation of people with diverse backgrounds, skills and perspectives, particularly in the area of public services.

There are fewer people working in the public sector who understand how to best serve a diverse public, he said. "Just as you have declining numbers of diverse students attending UCLA, you have a declining appreciation for a diverse workforce."