Chancellor Albert Carnesale has joined his Berkeley counterpart
in opposing the Racial Privacy Initiative due to the potential
threat it can have on the University of California’s ability
to conduct academic research and audit the effectiveness of its
outreach programs.
Sponsored by UC Regent Ward Connerly, the RPI seeks to help turn
California into a “colorblind” society by outlawing the
accumulation of racial data on state documents. Prisons and
hospitals are the only exceptions. Though by virtue of his office,
it would seem Connerly should first and foremost seek ways to
improve upon the UC. Yet he continues to abuse his public office,
using it as a pulpit for his utopian fantasies.
Although it concerns the UC, the RPI is not a political issue;
it’s a matter of practicality. Social science professors rely
on state collected data to study social, political and historical
trends ““ indeed, there are entire departments at UCLA geared
toward accumulating knowledge about specific races.
Moreover, the university has a mandate to ensure diversity on
campus, primarily through outreach. Outlawing the data-collecting
means by which this could be ensured would go against one of the
basic missions of the university.
The solution Connerly proposes calls for professors to do their
own research ““ which raises the question of why not just
allow the current efficient method to continue?
Other chancellors should follow UCLA and Berkeley’s
leaders in opposing a proposition that could cripple some of the
UC’s main resources.