By Josh Keller

San Francisco

Ever since California voters banned affirmative action by state agencies in 1996, the University of California at Berkeley has struggled to enroll more than a small group of black and Latino students. Four years ago, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau called the university’s low numbers ”shocking” and said the situation was “a crisis.”

But after making limited progress since then, Berkeley officials are now struggling to avoid another drop in the enrollment of underrepresented minority students, this time because of pressures from state budget cuts.

To save money, Berkeley plans to reduce the size of next fall’s freshman class. The university intends to enroll about 15 percent fewer Californians, while at the same time nearly doubling its number of out-of-state and international students, who will generate millions of dollars in new revenue from higher, nonresident tuition.

The intended growth in nonresident students at Berkeley, from about 12 percent to 23 percent of the student body, comes as public universities everywhere are turning to out-of-state tuition to replace declining state support. But the enrollment changes have sparked deep concern on the campus that black, Latino, and low-income students will be turned away disproportionately.

According to rough estimates prepared by a university panel on nonresident enrollment, the number of Latino freshmen who enroll next year could decline by 18 percent, the number of black freshmen by 13 percent, and the number of first-generation freshmen by 15 percent. Those estimates, which are based on the composition of the 2009-10 freshman applicant pool, compare with a 5-percent cut in the size of the fall freshman class as a whole.

“Decreasing California resident students will, at least in the short term, likely result in a less-diverse student body—an outcome that the task force finds appalling,” says the panel’s report, which endorsed the enrollment changes on financial grounds.

‘Minimize the Damage’

Underrepresented minority and low-income students are at risk when the enrollment of California students is reduced because those groups tend to be concentrated near the cutoff point for admission, said Walter A. Robinson, Berkeley’s admissions director. Out-of-state students, who must pay higher nonresident tuition, are typically a less-diverse group.

A setback for Berkeley’s racial-diversity numbers, which are a prominent symbol of the level of access to higher education in California, could create political problems for the university and embolden its critics. Black and Latino residents make up more than 40 percent of California’s population but represent only about 15 percent of Berkeley’s freshman class.

The prospect of a drop in diversity has campus officials working to broaden their outreach to California students and to recruit a more racially diverse pool of out-of-state applicants than in the past.

A University of California at Berkeley panel estimates that a plan to enroll more students from out of state and abroad, a revenue-raising step in response to budget cuts, would result in fewer minority and first-generation students, among others, entering as new freshmen next fall.

2009-10 (preliminary)

2010-11 (estimate)

Percent change

* Figures are campus targets.

Source: University of California at Berkeley

African-American students

121

105

-13.2%

Chicano/Latino students

498

410

-17.6%

First-generation students

681

580

-14.8%

Students who are California residents

3,725*

3,150

-15.4%

Total fall-term freshmen

4,300*

4,100

-4.6%

“I’m hoping that we can put the procedures in place that will allow us to minimize the damage,” said George C. Johnson, a professor of mechanical engineering and co-author of the panel’s report on nonresident enrollment. “Ideally, that would mean that our ethnic diversity looks the same this year as it does next year. It’s not clear that that’s doable.”

California college officials face strict legal limits on their ability to recruit and admit minority students because of Proposition 209, the state referendum that explicitly banned race-based preferences in public-college admissions in 1996. In many cases, admissions officials say they do not know the race of the applicants they are considering for admission.

Mr. Birgeneau, the chancellor, said it was too early to predict the outcome of the admissions process for next fall’s freshman class. He said that while the student body would probably get wealthier, aggressive outreach programs might help the university compensate for potential declines in racial diversity.

“It could lead to a decrease in the number of underrepresented minorities,” Mr. Birgeneau said. “On the other hand, the increased revenue from international and out-of-state students will give us more money for in-state outreach programs.”

He cited a state-court decision this year that may give the university additional legal options to recruit minority students under Proposition 209. The case, American Civil Rights Foundation v. Berkeley Unified School District, will allow the university to better seek out potential students at minority-heavy high schools with less risk of a legal challenge, he said.

“If the numbers do drop, which is possible,” he said, “then we will figure out strategies to compensate.”

Deflating the California Fantasy

The potential for a decline in Berkeley’s racial and economic diversity has drawn criticism from some faculty members and others who believe the university should retain its focus on California residents in spite of the budget cuts. Other University of California campuses are cutting their enrollment of in-state students, but none has moved as aggressively as Berkeley has to boost nonresident enrollment.

Christopher Newfield, an English professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said in an e-mail that the political cost of enrolling many nonresident students would outweigh the financial benefits. Berkeley officials believe new revenue from nonresident tuition will fill about 15 percent of the campus’s budget gap next year.

Mr. Newfield said it would be better to get the money by imposing a temporary surcharge on all students—a proposal unlikely to sit well with students who will already be paying for a 32-percent increase in tuition. Relying on nonresident tuition, he said, is “more of the California fantasy that somebody else will pay to fix this.”

The blow to diversity would be equally bad, he said. “Another wave of declines in black, Latino, and first-generation enrollments would be a disaster for Berkeley and for UC,” Mr. Newfield said.

Other higher-education analysts pointed to the effect the increase in nonresident students would have on the economic diversity of Berkeley’s undergraduates. Berkeley and other University of California campuses enroll a far higher proportion of low-income students than do most other prominent public and private institutions.

In the 2008-9 academic year, more than a third of Berkeley undergraduates from California were eligible for Pell Grants, a rough measure of the number of low-income students. Only 8 percent of out-of-state undergraduates were eligible for Pell Grants, according to the university.

Thomas G. Mortenson, senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, a Washington-based research group, said it would be difficult for Berkeley to increase the diversity of its out-of-state applicant pool. “With such a large increase in the number of out-of-state students, the trade-off is going to be the low-income population that they’ve served so very well in the past.”

ALL OUT to Protect and Keep Safe

the Muslim Community

Defend Freedom of Religion for All

Friday, April 29, 3:30 PM

Gather at City Hall @ 13615 Michigan Avenue

« Stop Immigrant-Bashing and the Scapegoating of America’s Arab, Latina/o, Asian, Islamic and other Immigrant Communities

« No More Raids & Deportations

« Full Rights for All Immigrants

« Arab, Muslim, Black, Latina/o, Asian & White – We Are All Dearborn, Detroit and its Surrounding Areas

« Build the New Youth-led, Independent, Mass Civil Rights Movement

« Realize Dr. King’s Vision for America in Metro-Detroit

Our new movement took an important step forward last week when we stopped the racist self-styled “pastor,” Terry Jones, from burning the Qur’an in front of the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in the country. Students, youth and community members from Dearborn, Detroit and the surrounding area came out to the court house, the mosque, and the public library and showed our unity and determination to defend the Muslim community from this racist attack.  However, while we succeeded in stopping Jones and his gaggle of racist thugs on that day, we did not do enough to prevent him from returning.

On Friday, April 29, Jones, who burned a Qur’an on March 20 in Gainesville, Florida, is planning an anti-Islamic protest in front of City Hall in Dearborn, Michigan, the home of the largest Arab community in America. Jones has recruited local neo-Nazi and other racist thugs to join his effort to burn the Qur’an and attack the Muslim community on Friday, its day of worship. We must not allow Jones and his gang of racists to succeed.

Freedom of Religion is one of the most basic and longstanding individual and civil rights in America. If we allow this right to be taken away from America’s Islamic community, then everyone is in danger of losing this precious right.

Dearborn is America’s largest and most important Arab center. If we fail to mobilize and defend the right of our Islamic community members to attend Friday prayers, we will embolden every far-right-wing political organization to attack our mosques and churches, our schools and our community. We will expose smaller Arab and Islamic communities to attack. The anti-immigrant racist bigots, who already feel plenty strong in this area, will feel invigorated to continue their gross, racist attacks against all of Michigan’s immigrant communities.

If we mobilize our community to stand up and march on Friday, and we turn out in the thousands, Jones will not dare to even get out of his car. He will flee Dearborn in defeat.  On the other hand, if we accede to Jones, or “ignore him,” we will hand him a victory that we can easily deny him. Our aim must be to give Jones a rousing defeat in order to assure that Jones and other racists know that they can never come back to Dearborn.

We have the right to organize community self-defense to protect our basic right to religious freedom, respect and dignity. We know from our experience with the police, the ICE and the courts, that we cannot rely for protection on the governmental bodies that have singled out our communities for harassment and discrimination. If we listen to those who are urging us to stay home or go to a rally somewhere other than City Hall, we will give away the rights that millions of people in the Arab world are fighting and dying to attain. We cannot take democratic freedoms for granted. They only exist if those who have them fight to defend them against anyone trying to take them back.

In the next few years, America will become a majority minority nation. We have the right and the duty to stand up, to stand strong, and to stand together for this new America to be a diverse, multicultural, integrated, equal society. We should never be ashamed of who we are. If we make ourselves look weak when we are strong, we simply let the racists and religious bigots define the character of our society and its future.

We call on all those who oppose racism and religious bigotry, and who cherish fundamental democratic rights to gather at to City Hall to ensure that Jones and his followers are not allowed to harass or intimidate Muslims in Dearborn.

JOIN BAMN

BAMN is committed to building a new youth-led, integrated civil rights movement. We are fighting for full rights for all immigrants, undocumented and documented. We oppose the rise of the new Jim Crow, the attacks on public education and the furious bi-partisan campaign to relegate black, Latina(o), Arab and other minority and immigrant communities to permanent second-class status. We know we can unite all the oppressed in a common, integrated fight for equality, dignity and prosperity. We are the only organization that rejects the view that only the rich and powerful have the power to determine the future of this nation and all the nations in the world. United in a mass movement, we know the oppressed have the power to change every political and social policy to determine our destiny.

BAMN wants the oppressed to win. We know how to organize the power of the oppressed on an independent basis to win. The poverty, inequality and subjugation of whole nations created by the political policy of this nation to put profit before human needs, has a death grip of the majority of the world’s people. We should not allow this to only grow worse when we have the power to win.

To those who want to fight for equality, freedom, dignity and pride for all, we say join BAMN now. We need a new generation of bold young committed leaders now, who will not accept failure as an option. BAMN pledges to never rest until every young person, black, Latina(o), Arab, and Asian and white, male and female, gay and straight, has the freedom to live and love, grow and develop without fear or degradation. If you feel as we feel, the fierce urgency of now, to fight and win, then join us. Our communities have the power to win—join us in giving them the leaders they deserve.

BAMN: The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary -  P.O. Box 24462, Detroit, MI 48224;                                855-ASK-BAMN (855-275-2266);    www.bamn.com   4/20/11 

lefan-o-rama:

• ~1500 Madison area high school students have walked out and are now swarming the Capitol
• Rumors of riot gear being donned by State Police.  Waiting for photos of this one.
• Assemblyman Barca says Senate Democrats are coming home tonight.
• Mayor Dave is walking with public workers who DECLARED A WILDCAT STRIKE today.
• DOA claims that Capitol would be open by 11am.  10 past now and no confirmation.

(Source: l3fan-o-rama)

To the anti-gay bigots, to the racists, to those who bear sexism as a badge of glory, to those who bash immigrants, to those who believe that there has to be the rich to exploit the poor, and to those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” I say this along side the oppressed: We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

frozencandles-deactivated201108 asked: Hi, although I dont celebrate it, I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas!
Thank you for following.

- Poetic Persistence.

thx likewise

Night drowning in the dawn of new love

Hearts encompassed by new impossibilities

Lovers lost in the imagined to escape their realities

Sometimes we twist

But our fidgeting doesn’t seem to break us loose

Caught in the daunting hands of many stagnated quarrels

We fought, we gave up, but the more we turn away

The more reality prevents us from moving on

We’ve convinced ourselves that

The person we were when we fought no longer breathes

That they were a child unaware of the realities of life

Yet we try to avoid the truth of the matter

We are really the one’s too afraid, too cynical, too beaten

To see that our only reality

Was on the battlefield for our dignity

Others attempt to wriggle us loose

But they can’t slacken this hold from outside

They can’t rescue us

They stand there, eye’s filled with passion and hope

As we think to ourselves

“What is wrong with these people?

Don’t they realize that the person they’re looking for

No longer exists… They aren’t here!!!

So why won’t they just go away?”

So we prescribe them with an illness

An ailment that would improve

Once they’ve been beaten by life as we were

Once they’ve shed so many tears

That the ducts are shriveled and dead from overuse

Once they find that the reference to blood from the turnip

Wasn’t regarding how much injustice can be squeezed out of you

But much rather how resisting it is futile

Once they “Grow up” then they’ll understand

But for now they’re ailed with youth

Their views of life and change are corrupted with hope

When they get older they’ll understand

That all hope does is leave you in despair

Because these expectations of equality will never be met

We are not lovers of each other as lovers, kinship and friends

No. We are lovers of our ideas remaining just that

Ideas of better, ideas of equality, and ideas of hope

Because it is not viable that these ideas will come to fruition

So a new love; it’s only the love of a new theory

Our hearts are encompassed in that impossibility

Only because reality will not forgive us for fighting

So our only hope is to escape in our imagined lives

With our dearest ideas

As we allow ourselves to be degraded

Because we know there’s no reason to fight for an idea

That forever can only be ideal