ABSTRACT

Affirmative action policies are under attack and while criticism of these policies is not new, the nature of the debate has shifted from implementation to termination.1 The university has become a prime target for dismantling affirmative action as is evidenced by recent events at the University of California. The resolution approved by its Board of Regents on July 20, 1995, calling for the elimination by 1997 of race, religion, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin as criteria for admission, hiring and contracting on its nine campuses, provides a blueprint of the conflict that looms ahead.2 The position of women, including women of color, will be directly affected by its outcome. In announcing the resolution, the governor proclaimed that: ‘Merit, not the color of one’s skin or gender, should be [public officials’] guiding principle’.3 While the primary target of the debate has focused on preferential admissions policies for minorities within the nine-campus system, it is clear from the wording of the resolution that women will be affected. The University of Texas Law School has also been barred by a panel of federal judges from using race as a factor in admissions. This decision is now being appealed, and, as Hacker (1996:21) points out, will give the Supreme Court the chance to revisit its 1978 Bakke decision, a 5-4 ruling that enabled the University of California at Davis Medical School to maintain a minority admissions policy.