UC President Emeritus Richard Atkinson
to Evaluate Prop 209 in Talk Reviewing
Ten-Year History of Controversial Law

January 10, 2007

By Barry Jagoda

The “California Civil Rights Initiative,” widely known as Proposition 209, was passed by voters in 1996 and amended the California Constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race, sex or ethnicity. Now, ten years later, the effects of this amendment on the University of California will be addressed in a Jan. 31 presentation to the UC San Diego Social Sciences Supper Club by Richard C. Atkinson, president emeritus of the university. The public is invited and press coverage is encouraged.

Before becoming president of the UC system, Atkinson served for 15 years as chancellor of UCSD, where he led the campus’s emergence as one of the leading research universities in the nation. Atkinson is an authority on the college admissions process. He is a former director of the National Science Foundation, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was a long-time member of the faculty at Stanford University and is professor emeritus in the UCSD Departments of Psychology and Cognitive Science.

Historically, supporters of Proposition 209 contended that existing affirmative action programs led universities to reject qualified white and Asian applicants based on their race. Opponents of the measure argued that it would end affirmative action practices of tutoring, mentoring, outreach and recruitment of women and minorities.

The Social Sciences Supper Club will be held in the Faculty Club on the UCSD campus. The cost is $65 and includes the presentation, dinner and parking. To register, contact Michelle Glenn at (858) 822-0805 or mglenn@ucsd.edu.

 

Media contact: Barry Jagoda, (858) 534-8567