PSf e I
Second thoughts on Bakkee:
Educators still figuring out what court meant
By DAVID ARBOGAST
Staff Writer
WASfflNGTON, D.C. (CPS)—Tim
Bradley of the American Society for
Engineering Education only shakes
his head and says, “Nobody knows.
TTiey’re aU wondering.”
That, in a nutsheU, is the “con
sensus” that has developed among
education lobbyists here in the four
months since the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that 38-year-old Allan P. Bakke
was illegally denied admission to the
University of California-Davis
medical school because he is white.
The court also ruled that the
school’s admissions policy, which
reserved 16 seats in a class of 100 for
minority students, was un-
consitutional. Yet it was the court’s
third ruling—that colleges may
consider race as a factor under
circumstances—that generated the
kind of confused Bradley noted.
For admissions officers are trying
to determine what those “cir
cumstances” might be. Their task is
not made easier by the court’s split
opinion on the issue. Only five of the
nine justices concurred in the
“special circumstances” opinion, and
there was considerable dispute
amwig those five over what con
stitutes an acceptable race-conscious
program.
As a result, the academic com
munity is busily running off to various
conferences to see if it can concoct an
acceptable* affirmative action
program on its own. Professional
organizations like the American
Council of Education and the National
Asessment of Educational Progress,
as well as schools from the University
of Maryland to Mount Marty College
in South Dakota, have already
scheduled Bakke conferences this
fall. Other groups, like the American
Association for Higher Education,
have rushed opinion booklets into
print that catalogue admissions
policy adjustments in the Bakke
decision’s wake.
TTie adjustments to date seem to be
an empty consensus. Among the
consensus’ main points: -i-That any
admissions program that used racial
considerations in any way will
probably be viewed by the courts as
“inherently suspect,” and thus be
subject to review.-fTTiat all schools
are going to have to review their
current policies, are probably going
to have to redraw them to explicity
reflect the school’s stated academic
objectives. -i-That colleges will,
nonetheless, retain broad
discretionary powers in tailoring
their admissions programs to their
goals, including the g^ of increased
minority enrollment.
The court itself was clear only on
the first point of the consensus. On the
second point, the court said schools
can consider race as one element of
an applicant special treatment only
because of his or her race would
vicdate the equal protection clauses of
the 14th Amendment.
RACE AS “ONE FACTOR”
Specifically, the court decided that
Allan been denied an equal
oppo(^{a:^ity •to'GQbl^ptete for one of the
16 med school seats Davis had
reserved for minority students.
Minority students, though, were
iiiiiptyii ifni I Mil iflPinrpitn in thr rVfii|i
Bakke and all other whites were only
eligible for 84.
Justice Brennan wrote at swne
length on the third point of the con
sensus, that colleges should retain
control over their own admissions
programs, and that “more minority
students” is a wwthy program goal.
But he found—and the post-Bakke
consensus has tended to concur—that
schools will need to take a good, hard
look at how they admit students.
Minimally, the standards that are
emerging would require schools to
publicly declare their schools will
need to take a good, hard look at how
they admit students. Minimally, the
standards that are emerging would
require schools to publicly declare
their admissions policies, and to
explain how the policies help the
schools meet their institutional goals.
It’s also clear that professional
education associations are taking an
active part in pushing their member
schools toward new admissions
programs. The emphasis in on in
novation. Innovation would seem to
be necessary if a school was to
thoroughly consider an applicant’s
By RICK KUSHMAN
Staff Writer
DAVIS, CA. (CPS)—The dean says
he caused a decline in minority ap
plications to the school. The ad
ministration says his very presence
required extra security precautions.
The rest of the world of higher
education, meanwhile, knows he’s
inspired a time of uncertainty for all
affirmative action programs.
So, none too surprisingly, Allan
Bakke, possibly America’s best-
known freshman, started school Sept.
25 amid the clamor of the press and
the shouts of protesters, ^emingly
oblivious to the questions and the
demonstration, Bal^e just smUed and
walked briskly into the main building
of the University of Califomia-Davis
medical school.
Some 40 reporters scurried after the
2|8-year-old from Los Altos, Ca., but
were denied entrance to the
classroom by the university.
Bakke, who has shunned publicity
since filing his “reverse
discrimination” lawsuit in 1974, only
told reporters, “Im very happy to be
here.” Tlien he left to attend his first
class.
After the class, a three-hour session
on molecular and cellular biology,
Bakke had to be helped to his waiting
car by some of the extra security
forces the school hired to keep
Bakke’s first day peaceful.
Meanwhile, demonstrators from
the National Anti-Bakke Decision
Coalition picketed the school,
shouting “Down with Bakke” and
“We won’t be denied.” Nonethdess
Andy Noguchi, a spokesman for the
group, said he wished Bakke the man
no ill, and that he was protesting the
U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
race within the vague bounds
suggested by the court. The
associations are asking schools to
pattern their programs after Har
vard’s.
Justice Powell, of course, wrote
approvingly of the Harvard program
in his Bakke opinion. Harvard con
siders a cOTididate’s minority status
as one factor (in the applicant’s
favor) among many factors that
determines if the ^ candidate is
ultimately accepted.
There is one other point on which
Regan
(Continued from page 1)
A unique feature of the depart
ment’s major curriculum program is
the field internship. TTie internship
allows a student to work in a social
agency or in community
organizations. Currently two students
are working in the (^rrboro City Hall
with the mayor and city manager.
TYiere is also an opportunity open to
juniors to spend a year in Africa.
Presently, there is a UNC Afro-Am
ruled the Davis affirmative action
program—which Bakke contended
hiad unfairly barred him from the med
school because he is white—was
unconstitutional becuase it used race
as the major factor in considering
Bakke’s application.
But in a separate 5-4 decision, the
court also ruled that race and
disadvantaged status could be con
sidered in admissions in order to
develop a balanced student body.
I The furor over Bakke’s resultant
arrival on campus, though, was
considerably more short-lived than
the controversy over the court’s
disposal of his case. Only one reporter
greeted the first-year med student on
his second day of class. The rest of the
week he was largely ignored by both
press and protesters.
Bakke was, according to his
classmates, greeted warmly by many
students, and has l)een treated as just
another person trying to survive med
school. By the end of his first week,
Bakke was indeed indistinguishable
from his peers. On breaks he talked
medicine with students around him,
and answering probing questions like
“How’s it going, big Al?” and “how
far are you b^nd?”
Dr. Willard CenterwaU, a genetics
professor, said the faculty isn’t giving
Bakke special treatment, either. “I
haven’t changed my style,” Cen-
terwall said. “And I did not prepare
for these classes any differently.”
ADMISSIONS DECLINE
Anatomy instructor Dr. Edward
Carlson called it a “foregone con
clusion” that Bakke would be treated
as just another student.
But Bakke’s presence has made a
difference at the administrative level.
everyone seems to agree: When
evidence of past racial discrimination
is proven, the courts will not hesitate
imposing even drastic measures to
remedy the problem.
Otherwise, speculation is all ad
ministrators have to go on right now.
There seems to be agreement that
something will have to be done about
admissions programs in the near
future, but the schools, contemplating
an abiguous court decision, are
cautiously waiting to see what other
schools will do first.
Sings
major in Sierra Lone.
The ever expanding and growing
department has added a new faculty
member. Mrs Carolyn Stroman will
teach the junior and senior seminar’s
and a course on the Black press.
The department of Afro-American
Studies, through its many planned
activities and enthusiasm on the part
of Black UNC students, is looking
forward to a very prosperous year.
admissions to the school. He’s hopjeful
that “after the furor dies down, the
number of minorities (in the med
school) will continue to increase.”
This year’s entering class includes
20 minority and 33 female students,
the dean said, but only nine people
were admitted throught the af
firmative action program.
Students admitted under the
program before the Supreme Court’s
June 5 decision were allowed to
remain, added Vicki Saito, the
university’s public affairs officer.
Those spaces opened by students
declining to attend Davis were filled
through a different process.
Race, said Saito, was still a factor
in the process. Spots were offered to
minority students as well as white
students. Although she could not
separate preand post-decision ad
missions, she did know that only two
of the 18 places offered to Hispanic
students were ultimately accepted.
Only four black applicants accepted
the 11 spaces offered, and just 14
Asians took the 36 invitations ex
tended to Asians.
MORE MINORITY RECTUITMENT
Saito observed that last year’s rate
of refusal was not as high. “It’s
possiWe,” she speculated, “that they
wanted to go somewhere where they
wouldn’t be subject to so much
publicity.”
Enrollment overall was dovim six
percent from the fall of 1977, but Dr.
Lois O’Grady, who heads the med
school’s student affairs office, noted
that decline matches the national
average for med schools.
All told, minMnty applications were
down seven percent.
Yet O’Grady stressed that the
university has intensified its
UCD Medical School Dean C. John
GR^TED-WARMLY ' Tupper said Bakke’s case is recruitment of minorities as* a'direct?
inJune*, of the'hi^‘court” responsible for a'declinfe in Trttoortty bf the' BaHtenflihgr.’
Bakke poses as just another student
His first Davis appearance causes ruffles on campus