Multiethnic UC regent wants to add 'multiracial' box

By: MICHELLE LOCKE - Associated Press | Tuesday, November 16, 2004 9:00 PM PST ∞

BERKELEY -- University of California Regent Ward Connerly is proposing that the 10-campus system add a "multiracial" box to application forms to give students more options in defining themselves.

"There's a view among many people who are multiracial that, look, we represent a growing segment of the population in this state, in this country," he said. "And yet there are many who believe that we're just irrelevant, that we don't count."

The proposal has drawn criticism from students and others who say the box could make it harder to collect data on minorities.

Meanwhile, UC administrators also oppose the change, saying that adding a box would go against federal requirements.

The debate illustrates how the emergence of a multiracial population has prompted institutions nationwide to review how they collect data. The U.S. Census decided in 2000 to give people the option to check multiple boxes. In 2004, about 4.3 million people listed themselves as being of more than one race, up 10.5 percent from 2000.

Statewide, people identifying themselves as multiracial make up about 5 percent of the total population, twice the national average, said Hans Johnson of the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit research group.

Critics of Connerly's proposal note that he led the fight to drop UC's old affirmative action programs and campaigned unsuccessfully for an initiative that would have stopped the state from asking college applicants their race.

Connerly, who is multiracial, contends he's not trying to blur the data, but rather to have the statistics reflect reality.

"Our society inhibits that. You either fit into this food group or you fit into that food group and you don't allow anything in between," he said. "We're redefining people so that they fit the system that we have, rather than having a system that fits who they are."

In a letter to regents, UC President Robert C. Dynes acknowledged that the population of California is changing and that as a research institution, UC should examine those changes. But, he recommended against adding a multiracial box, saying the change would undermine trend data on student demographics, would go against federal guidelines, jeopardizing funding, and would put UC out of step with other universities.

UC applicants now have the choice of checking one or more of 13 race or ethnicity boxes including "other." Checking the boxes is voluntary.

However, UC reports the data based on the five categories mandated by federal officials: American Indian, Asian, black, Hispanic or white.

Some opponents to Connerly's proposal say adding a multiracial or multiethnic box would confuse the data and is inferior to the option of checking one or more boxes.

"It's going to prevent the UC system from accurately reporting who's really here," said UC Berkeley student Ai-Ling Malone. Malone, who is of Asian and white descent, said multiracial people are not homogenous and "to lump us all in a box would really hurt the true representation of who's on campus."

Malone is president of UC Berkeley's Multi-Cultural Student Union, which is one of several student groups opposing the change.

UC officials surveyed the approximately 154,000 undergraduates enrolled last spring about the issue. About 42,000, or 27 percent, of students responded, with just under 11,000 identifying themselves as multiracial or multiethnic. Of those students, 44 percent said they wanted to check more than one box, 21 percent wanted to check a multiracial or multiethnic box instead of individual categories and 35 percent had no preference.

The demographics of UC have been an issue for years. In 1995, regents, led by Connerly, dropped affirmative action admissions, which led to a sharp decrease in black and Hispanic students. The numbers have rebounded since then for the system as a whole, but black and Hispanic enrollment remains low at the top campuses.

Connerly went on to chair Proposition 209, passed in 1996, which banned considering race in state hiring, contracting and education. His latest campaign, Proposition 54, which would have stopped the state from asking people about race in a number of settings, including college admissions, failed last year.

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