Campus views on diversity

Classes will go on the back burner at SF State today for students and faculty members who choose to participate in Indigenous People's Day teach-ins on the hiring and admissions practices knownas affirmative action.

The events will begin on the main lawn at dawn this morning, witha sunrise ceremony conducted by the Student Kouncil of IntertribalNations. With a noontime visit from the Rev. Jesse Jackson andnearly a dozen other events scheduled, memories of this year'sIndigenous People's Day may shine on longer than those of past Oct.12ths -- otherwise known as Columbus Day.

Earlier in the week, some instructors contacted by the Gater werenot aware of the teach-in. Others had canceled today's classes inadvance, but some were locked into scheduled mid-term examinations.

"I would certainly like to allow students who wish to attend (theteach-in) to attend. I would not make it mandatory," said blackstudies lecturer Joanne Gearing.

Whatever impact the teach-ins have, many students already hadstrong feelings about the role affirmative action policies play inboth the workplace and in universities.

"I think they should keep (affirmative action)," said JasonKimbrough, a social work major. "It gives minorities opportunitiesto have chances like whites have -- it gives (them) the chance tocontinue their education and try to make something of themselves,"he said.

Catherine Davis, who is working on a graduate degree in English atSF State, was also supportive of affirmative action in general. But she expressed reservations:

"Well, I'm a minority, and sometimes I'm not sure how helpful it is. And also I'm not always certain if it does the things it sets out to do. If you think about it in terms of, say, admissions into college where they want minority students, sometimes they have to lower the standards to accept minority students, and I don't think that gives a positive message," she said.

"I was a high school teacher, and a lot of the children I was teaching were minorities, and they didn't want to work very hard because they thought, 'Oh, well everyone needs a Chicano.' I didn't like that message," she said.

Critics of some affirmative action programs have charged that, in the effort to ensure access to jobs and programs for minorities, the policies discriminated against whites. Some students echoed those sentiments.

"I don't think (a university) should have to say, 'Well, you know we can't hire you because we've already got ten white people. Even though you have a Ph.D. and tenure at this other school and wrote 20 books, we're going to spend two months with an empty position because an Indonesian hasn't stepped into the office and applied for a job here,'" said kinesiology major Ben Price.

But not all affirmative action policies are alike, international business major Eddris Malikyar suggested. "If they're choosing from an entire pool of all qualified people, and then they choose a certain percentage of each race to make it even, then that's ok," he said. "But if they're hiring people that aren't qualified just because they're Asian or Hispanic or whatever I don't think that's right."

As for assertions that affirmative action policies in general are discriminatory Kimbrough said, "You'll hear that from white people most of the time. I mean, minorities have been going through this (discrimination) all the time, we're used to it. It's an excuse, really."

Modesto Ponce DeLeon, an urban studies major, agreed. "I think if they really believe that, they should do some more studying on it, get some evidence to back that up instead of just saying it," he said.

Price cited another of Rev. Jackson's planned stops today, UC Berkeley, as an example of a situation where qualified applicants had been turned away because of affirmative action.

"From what I understand, it's hardest to get into the school if you're Asian or White, like you would need -- a 4.0 isn't good enough. Where as I heard if you're American Indian all you need is a high school diploma," he said. "Which I think is great. A lot of American Indians don't graduate from high school, the majority don't graduate because of society. They feel like they're cheated -- they are cheated -- and they're living on reservations, they're low income and all this stuff... I wouldn't deny them an education."

Tharon Weighill, who is a member of SKINS and the Student Center Governing Board -- two of the organizations that helped bring Rev. Jackson to campus -- said that the 164 Native American students at SF State are "the invisible minority on campus. We have no voice on the campus."

Art major Erin Gould, who is a transfer from Humboldt State University this term and supports affirmative action said that the Humboldt State student body is "pretty homogeneous, pretty white." And there is even less diversity among the faculty, she said. "It's mostly older white men who are tenured." There is some diversity in the non-tenured staff, Gould said, but "they'll get cut or leave." For Davis, who did her undergraduate work at Cal Poly Pomona, SF State's diversity "had a lot to do with" her decision to do graduate work here.

Gould was not optimistic about the future of affirmative action. The decision by the UC Board of Regents this summer to end affirmative action will be far reaching, she said. "That was just the beginning. That started a lot of anti-affirmative action things. It was like a catalyst. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened not just in California but all over the United States." Bob Pace, a business marketing major, questioned whether the Bay Area was the best place for Rev. Jackson to stump for the cause. "Coming here to deliver a speech like that is like going to a church full of Christians and talking to people about stealing. (Affirmative action) is very generally accepted out here.

San Francisco is way past a lot of that. I don't really understand the purpose -- coming here rather than going to a different region where there's a lower acceptance," Pace said.

Political science major Steve Tong echoed recent suggestions that perhaps affirmative action can be overhauled.

"It's an OK idea, it's just focused in the wrong area. I think they should focus on economics rather than race. Because the point of going to school is to make money, to get a better job, so shouldn't they focus on the economic aspect of it?" He asked.

Even as it functions now, Tong said, "They're not giving the jobs away to other races and ethnicities, just giving preferential opportunity rather than preferential treatment."

Can the dream of a truly integrated society be realized without the help of some kind of affirmative action?

"I don't think it can be," said Davis, "because there are too many generations and too many customs and stereotypes. Prejudice and racism goes real deep and I think instinctively people are real hesitant to open up their minds -- and I'm not talking white people or hispanic people or black people, I just mean people in general -- a real reluctance to do that.

"The whole beauty of America is that it represents different cultures. Unfortunately, I do think we need something like affirmative action to make sure that everyone has that opportunity to succeed with whatever version of the American dream that there is left," Davis said.

[ Golden Gater Online October 12, 1995 ]

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