Points of View

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Ups, Downs Seen in Battle for Equality

By RAY HUERTA

When I retired at the end of 2003 I had completed 33 years of service to the University of California. In addition to being UCSB's affirmative action coordinator, I had also worked at the Berkeley campus, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and the UC Office of the President.

I have been privileged to serve six UC presidents and, on this campus, five chancellors and nine executive vice chancellors. I have worked with great staff, faculty, and students. The institutional pursuit of equality in the workplace has been a noble challenge, and I never met anyone on this campus who did not embrace this objective—the "how" was always the question.

As a federal contractor, the University was required to implement an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Personnel Program pursuant to Executive Order 11246 by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. Working with faculty and staff, we at UCSB have institutionalized policies and procedures that ensure our adherence to the federalized legal principle of nondiscrimination in the workplace.

This principle was upheld in the 1978 Bakke case when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that quotas were impermissible but race could be a factor in considering undergraduate admission to colleges and universities. Last July in Grutter v. Bollinger, the University of Michigan Law School case, the court reaffirmed the Bakke decision 5 to 4, ending the ambiguities surrounding the use of race as a factor in admissions.

As with race, national origin, and sex, today we prohibit employment discrimination based on a person's disability or sexual orientation. These changes are the result of civil rights laws over the last 30 years.

I believe we are a better place because we recognize and respect these differences.

In my view, the battle for equality has not gone as well on the state level. Proposition 209 in 1996 was probably one of the most contentious initiatives on race and gender relations in California. It was mean-spirited and misinformed the public of its real objective—erasing affirmative action's positive legacy in this state.

We are all for equality, but I find troubling that those supporting race- or gender-neutral policies never include enabling legislation to finance the attainment of equality. It appears sufficient to simply say we are "color blind."

In the civil rights course I have taught in the Chicana/o Studies Department for the past 20 years, I tell my students there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals. To not consider the conditions that gave rise to inequality turns the principle of equality upside down.

Today, universities are one of the few places where diversity and civility are important institutional values.

While we must continue to monitor our personnel actions to ensure equal opportunity to compete, much progress has been made at UCSB. In 1974, women constituted 8.4 percent of the permanent faculty and minorities made up 7.6 percent. By 2003 women faculty had reached a level of 27.1 percent and minorities 17.8 percent. Current staff employee percentages are roughly double those of the faculty.

Despite the campus support of affirmative action, we have experienced legal action against the campus regarding this principle. I viewed these suits as an expression of frustration by the litigants. I am proud to have been affiliated with a workplace that has had diversity as one of its institutional goals.

Equality is a noble goal, and I feel fortunate to have been part of the team that has implemented institutional change over the last 30 years.