RACE CARD PLAYING the
New affirmative action legislation in California impacts higher education in public schools, but has limited effects on students’ college acceptances
BY GABRIELLA MONICO AND MANASA SANKA
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s the rain beat down in front of the Cupertino library on March 2, sophomore May Cui noticed many people waving signs and chanting “Say no to SCA 5.” They had one predominant feature: they were primarily Asian. Senate Constitution Amendment No. 5. allows for affirmative action in public education. With this legislation, discrimination or preferential action can be directed toward groups of people based on race and sex in the college admission process. Furthermore, the nine University of California colleges would not
be institutions of the state. Although the bill has been tabled for now thanks to protests by Asian-American groups, the legislators behind it hope to put it on the ballot in 2016. However, despite what many protesters believe, the race card might not actually be a game changer as long as the students’ efforts and the quality of education remain the same.
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The Race Advantage: According to Senator Ed Hernandez, when two students are equally qualified, SCA no. 5 permits race to be a determining factor for admission in the UCs. Race, however, is not the primary criteria by which applicants are judged for admission.
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Impact on students With an overwhelming Asian majority at MVHS, this law can impact high achieving students by denying them college admission due to demographic criteria beyond their control. Because it allows colleges to use race as a factor, there is the possibility of discrimination against Asians since they represent a large fraction of applicants in the UC system compared to the rest of the state. Asian-Americans comprise 40 percent of students at the UCs, however, they only account for about 14 percent of the state‘s population. Native Americans represent under 1 percent of UC students, yet account for 2 percent of the state population. The imbalance in representative racial diversity at the UC system is the problem that SCA no. 5 aims to solve. MVHS has a long history of sending its students into the UC system, with 37.5 percent of 2013 graduating seniors attending college at a UC. By the numbers, SCA no. 5 should not make a drastic difference in UC acceptance for students of Asian descent as a quota will not be enforced and merit will still be the first and foremost indicator for acceptance. While some students may be barred from the UC of their choice, there are still eight others available. Despite the fact that private
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