UH programs meet criteria, officials say
| • | Affirmative action backed by high court |
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
While University of Hawai'i attorneys continue to study yesterday's Supreme Court rulings, officials and other experts in affirmative action were confident that the mixed rulings will allow UH affirmative action programs to continue unchanged.
Some limited affirmative action programs at UH could have been affected by the rulings, said Amy Agbayani, director of the UH Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity Office.
These include programs to enhance law and medical school admissions of Native Hawaiians and other underrepresented minorities, and an outreach program aimed at tutoring and mentoring minority students at the undergraduate level, she said.
But those programs pass muster because they also consider financial need as a factor and because they prepare students for admission rather than admit them outright, said Alan Yang, dean of students at the Manoa campus.
Agbayani said Hawaiians and Filipinos, for example, respectively represent 27 percent and 19 percent of students in the public schools, but only 15 percent and 14 percent of the UH student population statewide. At Manoa, the shortfall is even greater; each of those groups are only 9 percent of the student body.
"The University of Hawai'i and the state of Hawai'i agree that we need affirmative action to get talent included that has been traditionally excluded," she said. "The Supreme Court decision affirms that rationale."
Tuition waivers given to needy students of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island ancestry, as well as other groups, are under review by the U.S. Department of Education because of a complaint filed with the department's Office of Civil Rights, said Doris Ching, UH vice president for student affairs.
But she and Peter Englert, chancellor of the UH-Manoa campus, were generally encouraged that the high court's endorsement of "effective participation" by all ethnic groups will support UH programs.
The rulings also drew praise from Gov. Linda Lingle, who said that "overall diversity in the campus is something a university wants to have."
The rulings strictly affect only state institutions, but private colleges nationwide, including Chaminade University, have been watching the court for signs of wider repercussions.
Wayne Tanna, a lawyer and a Chaminade accounting professor, is one who worries that, even with the diversity achieved since the Bakke decision in 1978, society hasn't learned from the experience.
Tanna cited an FBI study that listed college campuses as the third most common location for hate crimes.
"We've had 25 years to work on this," he said, "and it doesn't seem to be getting any better."
