After passage of Initiative 200, UW looks to the road ahead

by Jon Marmor | March 1, 1999

Wednesday, Nov. 4, was like any other late autumn day in Seattle, cloudy, cool, a touch of winter on the way. But this was no ordinary day at the University of Washington. The state’s flagship public university was about to embark on one of the biggest challenges in its history.

Simply put: how could it continue to have a diverse student body and workforce in light of a new law?

The night before, Washington voters approved Initiative 200, which was aimed at dismantling the state’s affirmative action programs. Although everyone saw it coming-most expected I-200 to pass, though the 58 to 42 percent margin was surprising-it meant the UW had to change the way it did things. Exactly how, though, was up in the air.

One thing was certain. “This is going to have a very big effect on this campus,” says Myron Apilado, the UW’s vice president for minority affairs.

At first, the election results brought uncertainty. The morning after the election, concerned students went to the Office of Student Affairs, wondering if it was still open and its programs operating. Prospective minority students called, wondering if their applications might have been suddenly rendered invalid by the election results.

The office was open, the applications were just fine. Yet, while it is a little early to know all the effects of I-200, it will definitely be a landmark change in admissions, since race and gender no longer can be used in considering entry qualifications. But one thing will never change: the University’s resolve to have a diverse student population.

“Diversity is a critically important value to the educational mission of the University of Washington,” says President Richard L. McCormick.

“The recent passage of Initiative 200 has deprived us of a tool that has been useful in promoting diversity for decades,” McCormick says. “That goal of diversity remains as important as ever, and it is far from achieved. We have a historical opportunity to provide leadership and to make a difference on behalf of excellence and opportunity at our University and beyond.”

The UW is meeting the challenge head on through a number of initiatives. The President’s Advisory Committee on Diversity, headed up by Vice President for Student Affairs Ernest Morris, serves as the primary forum for considering a wide array of concerns, ideas and suggestions for promoting diversity.

The committee includes Apilado, ASUW President Franklin Donahoe, Regent Constance Procter, Tacoma Chancellor Vicky Carwein, Creative Writing Professor Charles Johnson and other student, faculty and administration representatives.

In addition, a Diversity Working Group, headed up by Morris and Apilado, is dealing with immediate questions on complying with the law and offers campus units guidance on handling admissions, scholarships and other issues.

The UW has a solid foundation to build on. In recent years, it has done better representing the ethnic mix of its state’s population than nearly all of its peer universities. When differences for state demographics are taken into consideration, the UW has been far more representative than UCLA, Cal-Berkeley or the flagship public universities in states such as Illinois, North Carolina and Oregon.

In 1997, the UW student body was 27 percent minority, compared with 17 percent in the state as a whole. However, these figures can be misinterpreted. Asian Americans enroll at the UW in far greater numbers than their representation in the state. Nineteen percent of the UW student body is Asian American, compared with 6 percent of the state population, according to census figures. When Asian American students are removed from the equation, black, Hispanic and Native American students make up 8 percent of the UW student body. Those same three groups make up 11 percent of the state population.

Keeping those levels will be a challenge. “We have to come up with a new admissions policy,” says Apilado. “Exactly what that will look like won’t be known for a while. But maintaining diversity will be a problem.”

Scott Smith, a former Republican state representative from Puyallup who sponsored the initiative, says there may be a slight drop at first, but he is confident trends will work out. “Initially you will see a drop in the number of minority students in the short term,” he says. “But over the next couple of years, you will see the numbers level off. You will not see much change over the long haul.

“What you will see is students learning to be more competitive. People of color will say if they want to be the best and attend the best schools, then they must be competitive. It will take a while to get this into people’s mindsets.”

UW officials approach their new challenge hoping to avoid what happened to the University of California after the 1996 passage of Prop. 209, which ended affirmative action programs in that state.

Minority enrollment figures at Cal-Berkeley plummeted in 1997, the first year race wasn’t used in admissions. The entering class of 3,735 included 51 percent fewer African Americans than the year before. The number of Latino freshmen dropped 43 percent and the number of Native American freshmen dropped 39 percent.

“The effect of Prop. 209 has been devastating,” says William Lester, a Berkeley chemistry professor, who has watched the change in his classroom. Adds Bob Cole, an associate dean of law at Berkeley: “The morale here is terrible. It is very distressing.” Students and faculty there held a two-day walkout in October to demand that Prop. 209 be reversed and affirmative action be reinstated.

Distressing numbers also turned up at UCLA, where the number of black, Hispanic and Native American admitted freshmen fell by 36 percent, from 2,066 in 1997 to 1,327. “There were not even enough black students to go on every floor of the dorms,” laments Stacy Lee, president of UCLA’s student government. That campus, too, has been the site of student demonstrations.

Understandably, the mood of students here has been edgy. On Dec. 2-the day before I-200 became law-200 students protesting the initiative blocked traffic on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge for more than an hour. The protesters ended the day in President McCormick’s office in Gerberding Hall, asking him to preserve minority outreach and tutoring programs.

“Are we going to be pushed out?” asks Cynthia Sim, a senior psychology major who was admitted through the University’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), which for the past 30 years has provided educational opportunities to underrepresented minorities-and to economically and educationally disadvantaged students of any race. “What is going to happen to us?”

I-200 co-sponsor Smith says the students’ concern is misplaced. Instead of waiting for “government to help them out,” he says ethnic minority students ought to be “concerned over their own grades” and learn to help themselves. “It seems that academic institutions are afraid of competition,” he explains. “But it is very competitive in the working world. Some people are scared of competition.

“Look, I-200 did not end affirmative action. It just makes everyone play by the same rules. Our colleges are not social institutions. They are academic institutions.”

As of now, admissions is the only area immediately affected by I-200. All references to race and ethnicity have been removed from UW application forms. “That just means we have to find other ways to get a diverse community of students,” says W.W. “Tim” Washburn, the UW’s director of admissions. “Beyond grade point averages and test scores, we will look at students’ educational disadvantages, socioeconomic status, residency in rural parts of the state, disabilities, special talents, whether parents went to college, cultural diversity and other factors.

“It will create a lot more work on our end, evaluating students. And it will mean applicants will have to focus a lot more on the personal essays they submit, because they will take on much more significance in the evaluation process.”

“We are concerned,” adds Jeffrey Hedgepeth, the director of the Business Educational Opportunity Program in the UW School of Business Administration. “We have worked hard over the years to beef up the number of ethnic students in the business school.” A little more than 8 percent of the business school’s 1,435 students are ethnic minorities.

“The experience in California suggests this will be a major challenge,” says Morris, the vice president for student affairs. “The enrollment numbers in California are dismal. We don’t know yet how to proceed on admissions. But outreach will be a key factor.”

“The University is committed to expanding significantly its programs for outreach,” adds McCormick.

Given the makeup of the state of Washington, outreach is critical. Its pool of ethnic minorities is less than a fifth of the size of the minority population in California.

Once again, the UW has an impressive record when it comes to outreach. The Early Scholars Outreach Program, for instance, is a partnership between the Office of Minority Affairs and eight middle schools located throughout the state of Washington. The program provides students with tutorial sessions and mentoring.

Another example is the Samuel E. Kelly Scholars Center, located in Seattle’s Central Area. Named in honor of the UW’s first vice president of minority affairs, and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the center provides academic support and tutoring for high school students belonging to groups underrepresented in higher education. It also provides training for the SAT test.

And there is the UW’s Upward Bound program, a federally funded outreach effort providing support services to first generation and economically disadvantaged high school students at two Seattle high schools.

Other UW’s outreach programs-such as the Educational Talent Search Program, Middle College High School, High School Tutor/Mentor Program and TRIO Training Program-encompass a wide array of efforts in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest. Faculty work with communities throughout the state in everything from helping Seattle schools develop a comprehensive on-line network to WWAMI, the School of Medicine’s program that trains medical students and encourages them practice in rural settings.

The UW also maintains close relationships with community and technical colleges as a way of attracting students from all backgrounds and cultures, helping prospective students learn the ropes when it comes to preparing for college.

While the UW has already taken steps to maintain diversity, some folks around the state aren’t fully aware of the University’s efforts. “Native Americans have asked me if they are still welcome at the University,” says Gene S. Magallanes, director of the minority science and engineering program in the UW College of Engineering, which receives backing from IBM, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Science Foundation to attract underrepresented minorities.

Magallanes, who recently spent time on the Yakima Indian Reservation recruiting students, fears that in the UW College of Engineering alone, the number of minority students enrolling could drop as much as 40 percent.

Meanwhile, UW officials are redoubling their efforts to get the word out that minorities are welcome-and that the University will do everything under the law to serve them.

“It would be chilling if students weren’t even applying (because of I-200),” says Enrique Morales, director of admissions/recruitment for the Office of Minority Affairs.

“One of the most important things to do is encourage students,” adds Washburn, the admissions director. “Some students who would have been regularly admitted and are well prepared to study are questioning whether they will have access to the UW.

“We have to communicate somehow with students and families that opportunities still exist at the UW. We have six public colleges in the state of Washington that offer a wide array of academic opportunities, plus 32 community and technical colleges. Half our graduates at the University are transfer students who spent their first year or more at other schools.”

Washburn and other admissions officials also point out that federally funded programs remain untouched by I-200.

With its new diversity advisory committee and expanding outreach efforts, the UW is trying to preserve and enhance the diversity that has helped make it one of the premier institutions of higher education in the country. Still, some ethnic minority students are concerned about the future.

“I came here from a tiny school on an Idaho reservation,” says Willie Sahme, a senior who hopes to study mechanical engineering. “I always had to struggle to keep up. Now I feel like I can compete. Without the EOP programs, I wouldn’t be here today. I didn’t get enough math or other subjects in high school. These programs gave me the chance to come here. But I don’t know what the future holds.”

Adds Aaron McCray, a junior business major: “A lot of people are losing faith in the system to look out for those of us who don’t have everything. I thought legislation like I-200 would pass in Louisiana, Alabama or Mississippi. I never thought it would pass in a state like Washington.”

McCormick has never wavered in his stance on diversity. “The University’s commitment to diversity remains strong, and my own personal commitment is very deep. Academic excellence and the health of our society both depend on our educating a diverse citizenry,” he says.

“I doubt that we will ever look back at the passage of I-200 as a good thing. On the other hand, we can say it caused the UW to recommit to diversity, thereby improving the education for everyone.”